


Thundering Hearts

by Arinalle Fanirei (ShakyHades)



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Angst is a knife, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Heart Fuckery, Hurt/Comfort, LET THEM BE DUMB TEENAGERS FOR ONE SECOND I BEG OF YOU, M/M, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Slow Burn, and i'm gonna stab Sora with it, come get y'all's Lost Trio juice, i'm gonna stab everyone that comes within range tbh, idiots to lovers, in this house we make Kairi the well rounded character she deserves to be, it's a wonderful day at the Land of Departure and you're a terrible Vanitas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 179,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22803805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShakyHades/pseuds/Arinalle%20Fanirei
Summary: Three months after Sora fades from existence, Riku can't take it anymore.They've been searching for clues nonstop, visiting every world they can think of, to no avail — there is nothing that even hints at Sora's whereabouts. The others insist that they need to go about this with caution — none of them want a repeat performance of what Sora has done; they all just want to gohome— but Riku's link to Sora is the only one still working, even though almost half of their little group had gotten all close and cozy with Sora's heart. Said link creates a pit of anxiety in Riku’s chest that never quiets down, never sleeps, no matter how many times he paces the entire tower in the dead of night. Itcallsto him; sends adrenaline rushing through his veins until it takes every ounce of willpower he has to stay still; to trust his friends.But everyone has a breaking point; and if his only remaining tie to Sora wants him togo, then Riku will happily comply.xA story about finally getting to befriend the people they've worked so hard to save, healing from old and new wounds — physical or otherwise —  and slowly discovering that there's more to their bond than "just" friendship.
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 248
Kudos: 328





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Chikai, because I'm a hoe and when I go, I go hard on the feels.
> 
> I got this idea from reading CalicoColors' amazing, heart-fucking-stopping fic, _Even in the Darkest Shade of Dawn_. If you haven't read it, I beg you to do so -- it concluded a few days ago and it was an incredibly fun ride from start to end. It made want more stories in which Sora and Riku _share_ something -- and this is the result.
> 
> I have no schedule for this. Updates may be very inconsistent and take months at at time, but I won't abandon this <3 Enjoy!

In the great nothingness that fills up the space beneath what is known as the Final World, there lies a soul, falling slowly but steadily into oblivion.

It is unaware of its own existence; little more than loosely bound fragments that once composed a living being, now shattered seemingly beyond repair. Unseeing, unhearing and unfeeling, it drifts down, pulled ever further by the weight of its broken pieces; of its jagged edges.

It has no idea how long it’s been there, for time has no meaning when all that surrounds you is nothing. It has no thoughts and no memories, with only a single thread binding its heart together and keeping it from fading entirely.

But then, in the distance, something happens -- something _changes_. It opens eyes it didn’t remember having to see a bright, fuzzy-edged light come closer, starting as no more than a speck and growing at a constant pace, faster than the soul can fall.

The light makes the soul _remember_ : remember that it is a _person_ , that _**he**_ has friends and a home, somewhere outside of this great void. It sets something alight in his previously unfeeling chest, something that calls to the glow in the distance with emotions he cannot name.

The light eventually resolves itself into a person: a friend, a _best_ friend that makes Sora’s -- _Sora, he has a name!_ \-- heart sing with what seems like unbridled joy. When his friend finally gets within touching distance, Sora remembers how to speak.

“Riku,” he says with a croaky voice; the name opens the dam to a lifetime of shared memories that Sora weathers gratefully. “You’re here,” Sora adds, even though he has no idea where ‘here’ is.

“I found you,” Riku says, sounding teary. It feels wrong to Sora’s ears for his best friend to sound like that -- Riku is sure and steadfast, confident and determined -- but Sora guesses that even the strongest people have their weak moments.

“You’re here,” he repeats, not knowing what else to say. Riku’s expression hardens into the determination Sora is so familiar with from him; the thread that binds his fragmented heart _sings_ again -- Sora holds it firmly, with a desperation he cannot place.

“I’m gonna get you out of here,” Riku tells him, wrapping his arms around Sora’s waist before starting to pull him upwards. The light he gives off brings colors back into existence, makes Sora aware of the rest of his body.

But for all that Riku tries, they don’t seem to budge an inch -- in fact, it appears that they continue to drift down in an ever-constant speed. Unbidden, Sora remembers why he’s in this place; the journey and the choices that have led him there, saddening him.

“Riku,” he calls. The other continues to attempt to pull him up. “Riku, it won’t work,” he whispers, resting a hand on his best friend’s arm.

“I’ll make it work,” Riku spits back -- Sora is unfazed by the heat present in his words, aware that it’s not directed at him. “I won’t leave you here.”

“I’m too broken,” Sora smiles ruefully. “This is the price I’ve paid.”

“Well, I don’t accept it!” Riku shouts. Sora feels like it should echo, but it doesn’t. “What about the promises you’ve made? Are you just going to break them?”

Sora frowns mournfully. “I can’t leave this place,” he says, settling a hand over his barely-there heart. “I’m incomplete. I don’t know how I’m not dead.”

“Don’t say that,” Riku snaps again, breathing hard. “We’ll figure something out. We always do-- I am _not_ going to leave you here,” he repeats, his arms tightening around Sora.

“You have to,” Sora insists gently, cupping Riku’s jaw with a hand. “You don’t have a choice. Even if we go back out there, there’s no guarantee I’d make it.”

“You will,” Riku affirms -- with such confidence that something inside Sora wants to believe in him against all odds. “I haven’t come all this way to give up now.”

Sora huffs, taking one of Riku’s hands and laying it on his chest, right above where his shattered heart beats.

“Can’t you feel it? A little over half my heart is gone,” he sighs. “I’m _broken_ , Riku.”

“We can fix you,” Riku argues earnestly. “It’s not like we’ve never done something like this before,” he adds with a deprecative half-smirk.

Their continued descent fills Sora with dread; what awaits them at the end of this void, if it even has an end? Sora thinks back to how small Riku’s light had seemed at first, how distant it had been, and gets antsy.

“You should go,” he says plainly, even as he clutches Riku’s arm in a vice grip.

“Not without you,” Riku shakes his head.

“I don’t want you to get stuck here too!”

“I don’t care!”

Sora grumbles, annoyed by his best friend’s stubbornness. Riku presses his hand more firmly against Sora’s chest.

“If it’s your broken heart that’s keeping you here, we’ll fix it,” he says with determination. Sora rolls his eyes.

“ _How_ , genius?”

Riku’s only response is to _pull_ on their link, the thread that still hums softly -- doing so with such force that Sora actually arches into his hand in surprise. Before Sora can react any further, Riku _blasts_ their bond open, far wider than it’s ever been before, in a motion that steals the oxygen from Sora’s lungs.

At first, there’s just the overwhelming sensation of having his skin scraped raw, of being utterly exposed, of uncomfortable vulnerability. But then he shuts his eyes and grimaces as _something_ is transferred by their link -- wonders what it is only for a moment, before he feels the mangled mess that had been his heart _swell_ with an unknown substance.

Sora then feels through the bond as Riku’s heart gets weaker, and it dawns on him that his best friend is doing: somehow, he has found a way to give Sora parts of his own heart to make up for the missing pieces, fracturing it in the process.

“Riku--” he tries, but there is no sign that the other has heard him. Opening his eyes with difficulty, Sora notices that the light Riku had been naturally emitting is diminishing -- that Sora’s own light, previously non-existent, is making up for the difference.

Riku’s grip on him falters. Sora feels their descent slow down, feels his own weight get lighter -- but as Riku tightens his hold again, eyes still closed in concentration, Sora realizes that Riku is the one dragging them down now.

In an instinctual and desperate move, he snaps their link shut violently. Riku gasps and goes lax, appearing to lose consciousness not long after. Filled with adrenaline, Sora considers the possibility of _both_ of them being trapped in this void for the rest of time, but a part of him rebels against it, driving him into action.

Without knowing how he’s doing it, he starts drifting up, carrying Riku’s weight in his arms. It helps to think about it like swimming -- it’s not like diving, where gravity is in his favor and the only thing he has to do is control his fall; he has to expend effort to return to the surface, as if moving through water when his lungs are already begging for oxygen.

He spends what seems like an eternity going up, up, _up_ \-- his arms may as well be two blocks of lead for all he can feel them, his legs burning from exertion even though he’s beating them against the literal void. He wants nothing more than to be able to rest, but he can’t; if he does, they’ll probably start descending again, and then god knows if they’ll ever be able to leave this cursed place.

He had been fine with staying here on his own, but under no circumstances can he let Riku share his fate.

So he swims and swims endlessly, with rising frustration. Just when he’s about to burst into tears from it -- _how much longer to go!?_ \-- they finally break the surface. Sora pulls Riku up and collapses on the water’s surface -- that is suddenly solid again, as though it turned to ice -- taking a moment to gasp for breath.

When his body has stopped shaking, Sora pulls himself up and drags Riku with him a few steps forward, using that time to adjust his grip on his much taller and heavier best friend. Once he’s sure Riku won’t slide back to the void, Sora holds out his hand -- fearing for a heart-stopping second that his keyblade won’t respond to his call -- then breathes out in relief once the Kingdom Key materializes, pulsing steadily on his right hand, whispering ‘ _home, home, home’._

There is no Chirithy around to guide him this time, but it doesn’t matter; he already knows the way. He opens a portal on the water’s surface, having no idea where it will lead -- hoping only that it’ll be somewhere safe.

Once the light that engulfs them fades away, Sora looks around and is surprised to recognize the _Highwind_ , his own gummi ship. A wave of relief so great washes through him at the familiar sight that his knees almost buckle.

From then on, it’s autopilot to Sora to drag Riku into the compact sleeping area. Sora sets his friend on the bottom bunk -- nearly forgetting to take off Riku’s shoes -- before climbing onto the top one hastily, knowing with absolute certainty that if he doesn’t get horizontal right this second, he _will_ pass out on the goddamn floor.

His exhausted mind only spares a moment’s worry for the fact that they’re sitting still in the middle of unknown space with no worlds anywhere near them, from what he had gathered on his brief look through the viewscreen. Anything could come and attack them and they’d be totally unaware until it was probably too late.

But the worry is powerless in the face of how completely _drained_ Sora is. His mind is already fuzzy, the memories of what had just transpired in that void blowing away like smoke in the wind as Sora closes his eyes and falls asleep.


	2. Chapter 1

When Riku wakes, the first thing he notices is how _awful_ he feels. The intensity of the exhaustion that blankets him as soon as he becomes conscious is almost suffocating; he feels like roadkill, left to rot in the oppressive heat of summer until only the bones remain.

He has become distressingly familiar with said feeling in the past three months, but never had Riku experienced it to such a terrible degree. His empty stomach churns unhappily and his muscles protest mercilessly as he attempts to recall what could have left him in this state, but there’s nothing in his memories to clue him in.

When Riku finally opens his eyes -- expecting to see the stone ceiling of the guest bedroom he’s been using at the Tower, well-studied over weeks of sleepless nights -- what he finds instead is the distinctively _un_ familiar sight of a bunk bed above his own.

In a flash, it all comes back to him: the latest meeting at the Tower to discuss the leads everyone was following in their search for Sora, the frustration of discovering yet another dead end; the urgency, writhing like a physical thing at the bottom of his stomach, telling him that he had to go after Sora, _nownownow--_

He’d taken one of the gummi ships -- _Sora’s_ ship -- and mindlessly followed the thread that seemed to have all of his organs in a chokehold, landing himself in the middle of an empty pocket of space somewhere in the Lanes Between. He remembers reaching a place where the only direction the thread was pulling him in to was _down_ \-- recalls the cold fingers of panic squeezing his lungs until he’d acted on a hunch and taken his keyblade out, pointing it straight ahead before _diving_.

But the memory stops there; anything that may have happened after that is fuzzy and nondescript. Attempting to force himself to remember has no effect -- he might as well be trying to hold onto smoke, for all that it does.

Riku sits up gingerly, letting his head drop into his hands with a bone-deep sigh. Had it all been a dream? Had he truly dived? At that moment, he had felt so _close--_ had felt as if Sora was within his reach, if he just stretched his hand far enough--

He sighs again, tiredly ruffling his own hair, then takes a handful of it and _tugs_ , using the sensation to ground himself in the present again.

Well, then. If it had all been yet another dream conjured up by his tired mind and aching heart, he’ll just have to shrug it off and keep going. _Always_ keep himself going. He’ll find Sora, no matter how long it takes. 

Just when Riku is about to stand in order to make his way to the cockpit, he hears a strange noise -- a snore. Riku jumps to his feet so quickly that he almost crashes back onto the floor, nearly summoning Braveheart out of sheer instinct -- _what if an enemy had managed to get inside the ship?!_ \-- but something about the sound draws him up short and steals the oxygen from his chest, because he _knows_ it -- he spent his entire childhood making fun of it, in fact -- but it shouldn’t be _possible_ \--

And yet, when Riku looks at the bed above his, there he is: the source of that achingly familiar snore, the one they’ve been looking for tirelessly-- hugging his pillow in the same manner he’s done ever since he was a toddler.

Sora.

Riku’s breath hitches. No matter how many times he blinks, _Sora_ remains in the same place, peacefully asleep, as if he hadn’t been missing for three entire months and then simply appeared out of thin air inside his very own gummi ship.

Still, Riku is not yet fully convinced; he’s had way too many dreams of moments like these to believe in his own eyes; in his own longing-filled mind. He takes a few deep breaths before forcing himself to _wake up_ , bringing up memories of their time in the Sleeping Realm to aid him in his task.

But after three minutes pass and nothing happens, Riku has to admit that if this _is_ a dream, it must be a very powerful one to resist his attempts of freeing himself from it; given that most of the enemies that could provoke such a dream have been defeated not that long ago -- with the rest, such as Maleficent, being suspiciously absent -- it’s much more likely that this _is_ reality.

This conclusion doesn’t make it any easier to accept what’s happening, of course. Riku flips through his memory yet again, putting more effort into remembering what had happened after he had dived, but the only thing he gets in return is a pounding headache to add to his misery.

As a last resort, Riku steps closer to Sora with a raised hand. Part of him is scared out of its mind that he’ll try to touch Sora and he’ll disappear -- fade into the light, just like he had done on the Play Island as Riku, Mickey, Donald and Goofy watched, powerless to help him in any way.

Kairi had sobbed into Riku’s embrace for _hours._ Neither of them had had the courage to go back to their parents’ houses following the entire ordeal, accepting a ride into the Mysterious Tower without question.

Riku hesitates with his hand mere centimeters away from Sora’s arm, ultimately pulling it away and gritting his teeth, telling himself to _pull it together_ before he reaches for his best friend again -- this time successfully managing to touch Sora’s skin.

Sora shows no sign of having registered the sensation, but that doesn’t matter. Riku can feel the warmth he gives off -- even his pulse, if he focuses hard enough! -- as well as see the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest. Another snore snaps Riku out of his trance, leaving him overwhelmed and short of breath.

His heart tries to bring up the same exasperated fondness Riku had felt when Sora had done similar things, but it’s ineffective; the past few months have been nothing like the year Sora spent in the pod, or the mess that their Mark of Mastery exam had become near the end. In both of those times, Sora had still been _there_ , in Riku’s physical reach if nothing else; this time around, however, there had been absolutely no sign of him, no clue -- nothing for Riku to turn to whenever his heart faltered.

If Riku looks closely enough, he can pinpoint the marks that those three months had left in Sora: his ashen skin, the bags under his eyes, the worrying thinness of his arms -- even as he sleeps like a baby. It is a more efficient reality check than anything Riku could come up with.

He is hit by a wave of relief so intense that his knees nearly fail him, so he decides it’s better to sit down before he has an uncomfortable encounter with the metal floor. He goes to the bottom bunk on the opposite wall and collapses on it, his eyes never leaving Sora’s form for fear of his best friend disappearing for a second time if he looks away.

He stays there in a daze until Sora moves -- cutting himself off mid-snore before frowning and readjusting his position on the bed. Riku draws in a sharp breath; the sound causes Sora’s eyes to snap open, zeroing in him with surgical precision. They stare at each other for a good minute, frozen still by the feelings bubbling up in their chests.

“Riku…” Sora whispers, sounding amazed. A second later, his face breaks out into one of the biggest grins Riku has ever seen on him, jumping off the bed -- nearly crashing gracelessly on the floor in the process -- before he sprints the short distance that separates him and Riku, who had stood up as well.

Sora crashes into Riku with a sound of pure glee, making him stumble a step back and almost hit his head on the bunk bed behind him. He throws his arms around Riku’s neck and holds tight while Riku hugs him around the waist, lifting his best friend up until Sora’s feet are no longer on the floor.

Riku can’t tell how long they spend locked in that embrace. Eventually Sora draws back, so Riku sets in back on the floor, stomach doing flips inside his chest cavity while Sora watches him in wonder.

“You saved me,” Sora exhales, then frowns. “But how did--” he cuts himself off with a wince, bringing a hand up to massage his temple. His knees wobble all of a sudden and only Riku’s quick reflexes save him from falling on his butt.

“I don’t know,” Riku tells him. “I only know that I followed our link here, and that I dived, but everything else is a blank.”

Sora lowers himself onto the floor gingerly, letting out little pained sounds.

“I remember an emptiness,” Sora says through gritted teeth. Riku’s heart drops to his feet for reasons he cannot pinpoint -- somehow, just the idea of a space filled with nothingness is enough to fill his body with heavy dread. “Then there was a warm light, and--” Sora cringes, cupping his head with both hands.

“Shh,” Riku shushes him, agitated. “Don’t force it if it hurts,” he scolds him, hands hovering near Sora’s shoulders uncertainly.

Sora scratches at his own scalp before taking a deep breath. “I’m…” he frowns in confusion, pausing for a minute. “I’m mad. I think I’m mad at you,” he continues, narrowing his eyes at Riku. “I can’t remember why, but _god_ , I feel so angry at you.”

Riku backs away surreptitiously, feeling drops of cold sweat start to bead onto his skin at the furious look in Sora’s eyes. Though he has no idea what happened while he saved Sora, something in him tells Riku that Sora’s anger is warranted.

“You did something stupid, didn’t you?” Sora accuses, nostrils flaring out. “I have no idea what, but you _did_ something,” he huffs. “Hadn’t you promised me that there’d be no reckless stunts?”

Riku bristles. “ _You_ promised _us_ that you would come back home,” he snaps. His best friend purses his lips and looks down. Riku regrets the outburst -- but only partially.

The silence that hangs around them after that is slightly awkward; the joy and elation of Sora’s return dampened by the unforgettable pain of his absence.

Sora clears his throat. “So, where are we?”

Riku looks up, then glances in the direction of the cockpit. “Somewhere in the Lanes Between,” Riku replies, shrugging with one shoulder. He gets a quizzical expression from his best friend.

“What do you mean, ‘somewhere’? You don’t know where we are?!”

“I know how to go back to the Tower,” Riku defends himself.

“But you don’t know where we are.”

“...not really?”

“Riku!”

Riku stands with some difficulty, ignoring the way in which his aching muscles protest the action.

“I just followed our link,” he argues, resisting the urge to cross his arms.

“We’ve been sitting ducks here for god knows how many hours! What if we were attacked?” Sora seethes.

Riku ignores the question and moves to the cockpit, prompting Sora to let out a wordless sound of annoyance as Riku checks the panels to guarantee everything is still working fine.

“I don’t know if I trust you with my ship after this,” Sora narrows his eyes, watching Riku mess around with the controls. “I want to be the pilot,” he argues petulantly.

“Do you know how to get back to the Mysterious Tower from where we are?” Riku asks in a deadpan tone.

“You could guide me!”

“No thanks,” Riku dismisses him, smiling involuntarily when Sora plops down in one of the chairs with crossed arms and a big ol’ pout.

Lord, how Riku had missed even this.

The realization that he _really_ did it -- Sora is truly, really back, and already arguing with him as well -- fills his chest with joy once again, bringing a genuine grin to his face for the first time in more than three months.

He rides this cloud of happiness for most of the flight, watching from the corner of his eyes as Sora takes out his gummiphone, fiddling with it for a moment before sighing.

“Did you bring a charger by any chance?” Sora asks, poking his dead gummiphone absentmindedly.

“No, sorry,” Riku says, thinking of his own device that he’d brought only as an afterthought, before promptly abandoning it on one of the bunk beds -- not wishing to hear it ring incessantly as the others wondered where he’d gone off to.

“Do you have yours with you?”

Riku grimaces. “I don’t think it has any battery, either.”

Sora hums. Riku feels danger approaching.

“Let me guess,” his best friend starts, purposefully noncommittal. “You didn’t tell anyone what you were going to do.”

Alas, danger has found him.

“No, but wait, there’s more-- you left in the middle of the night, too, right?”

Riku’s cloud of happiness turns to mist, dropping him onto the cold and hard concrete.

Sora huffs. “Kairi is gonna be _so_ mad at you,” he says.

And _there_ is the hand of Death, coming closer and closer to his shoulder.

Having knocked Riku out of his high _very_ successfully, Sora settles in for the rest of the flight, distractedly messing around with things from his bottomless pockets.

Once they get within sight of the Mysterious Tower, Riku breaks out in a cold sweat once again. Sora, meanwhile, starts to bounce on his seat like a little kid on Christmas Eve, which Riku thinks is very unfair. As their ship slows down to land, Sora stands and moves closer to the viewscreen with a wide grin, watching as all their friends run out of the tower to watch the ship’s arrival.

It’s not long before Sora runs to the still-closed ramp, muttering excitedly about how glad he is to see everyone again and wondering how they all are. Riku finishes the landing sequence with fingers numbed by dread, taking a deep breath that does nothing to calm him down.

“C’mon Riku, let’s go see everyone!” Sora eggs him on. Riku is surprised that he hasn’t pressed the button to open the ramp yet, considering the nervous energy he’s giving off, but he reasons that Sora is waiting for him to do so.

Sora runs out of the gummi ship to a litany of happy shouts of his name, being immediately caught into a big group hug that has half of the ones involved falling onto the grass. Riku walks down the ramp at a much slower pace, catching the attention of the few that remained outside of the pile.

His heart softens upon seeing how tightly Kairi is hugging Sora. He knows that she hadn’t been able to fully shake off the feeling that Sora’s disappearance was somehow her fault -- a consequence of her not having trained enough, not having been quick enough -- even as the rest of them did their best to convince her otherwise. This time around, her tears are happy ones.

Riku sees the King, Aqua and Terra step closer to him with varying levels of disappointment and disapproval on their faces, but Kairi gets there first; she leaves Sora with the rest of their friends and runs to give Riku a big hug as well, still sniffling softly.

“I am so glad you’re okay,” Kairi tells him, face buried into his white shirt. Riku rubs her back comfortingly, anxiety easing a little -- but then she steps back with murder on her eyes, and Riku knows he’s done for.

“Kairi--”

“What were you thinking!?” she shouts, kicking his shin before reaching out to pinch his ear and bring his head closer to her level. “We all _promised_ that there’d be no more going off on our own, without planning, without backup!”

“I know--”

“Do you really!? Because that’s not how it looks!! Do you have any idea how I felt, how _we all_ felt when we woke up this morning and you were nowhere to be found? Do you have _any_ idea how desperate we were to reach you, as you ignored all our calls? We were in this _together_ , Riku, all of us wanted to find Sora! We were all doing our best to get him home, same as you!”

Riku stays silent, fully aware that nothing he has to say will make matters better. When he glances at her face to see new tears streaming down her face, he feels like the absolutely lowest scum to ever exist.

“Do you think it’d be okay if we lost you too?” Kairi asks with a hiccup. “What am I supposed to do without _both_ my best friends?”

“I’m so sorry, Kairi,” Riku whispers, truly apologetic.

“You’re one of us too,” Mickey adds, taking a step forward. “You’re just as important as Sora to this group, Riku, don’t you ever doubt that.”

“I understand why you did it,” Aqua says. “I know very well the need to save your friends -- it fills your chest with this… overwhelming _desperation_ until you feel like you _have_ to do something otherwise you’ll burst,” she frowns, clenching her right hand into a fist over her chest. Terra lays a comforting hand over her shoulder. “But you’re not alone like I had been back then,” she continues. “My Master was dead and both my friends were lost, but I went in anyway, and look where that landed me,” she smiles ruefully.

“Aqua…” Mickey says.

“But I don’t regret it,” Aqua blazes through, head held high. “Just like I’m sure you will never regret going off yesterday, because in the end you _did_ bring Sora back -- though you probably wish you hadn’t hurt your friends by doing so,” she tilts her head, receiving a nod from Riku as confirmation. “But that’s not an excuse. It doesn’t make what you did okay, because Kairi is right: we were all in this together, trusting each other.”

Riku bows his head. “I understand.”

“Then swear to me that you’ll never do it again!” Kairi narrows her eyes, waggling her index right in front of his face.

He’d smile at her, but something _weird_ happens at that very moment; he feels faint all of a sudden, his skin goes clammy, his stomach turns uncomfortably. Shortly after that -- as he tries his hardest to stay calm -- Riku feels a sharp pain over his heart, so piercing that his knees buckle, bringing him down onto the soft grass.

Someone -- possibly Kairi -- yells out his name as he vomits up bile and acid, his stomach utterly empty of food seeing as the last time he’d eaten had been before he left to find Sora.

The pain goes away as quickly as it had appeared. Once his vision clears and he can breathe again, Riku lifts his head to find everyone circling him with worry in their faces; Sora elbows past the others to kneel at his side and help him sit up.

“What was that?” Kairi asks, drawing Riku away from the mess he had made on the grass.

“Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t feeling well?” Sora chides him with an accusatory tone.

“I was feeling okay,” Riku argues defensively, frowning down at his hands. “I don’t know what just happened.”

A quick glance around has him realizing that _no one_ believes him, even though it _is_ the truth. He’d been tired, sure -- maybe more like bone-deep exhausted, instead -- but the wave of _badbadbad_ had been as much a surprise to him as it had been to everyone else.

Kairi stares at him with furrowed brows, studying him very intently and appearing to be worlds away in her mind. She is snapped out of this state by Sora pulling Riku to his feet with some difficulty, putting one of Riku’s arms around his shoulders.

“I can take him,” Terra interjects with a smile, reaching for Riku’s free arm. Sora hesitates briefly before letting him take over; Riku does his best to put one feet in front of the other, wanting to keep at least _some_ of his dignity seeing as most of his weight is being held up by the other.

“We should let them rest,” Mickey says from Terra’s right side.

“Yeah!” Ventus exclaims. “We can have a proper reunion later, right?”

“Absolutely,” Sora enthuses. “On that note, though-- god, I’m so hungry!”

“Why am I not surprised?” Donald teases him.

“Hey! It’s been a really long time since I ate something, okay?!”

“We better take care, or else he’ll empty our pantry,” Lea smirks, ignoring Sora’s shout of protest.

“I’m still growing!!”

“You have a long way to go if you want to beat Riku,” Kairi snorts; Goofy nods his agreement.

Riku lifts his head from where he’d been watching his feet just in time to see Vanitas, Naminé and Rikuto near the entrance of the Tower, having kept their distance from the whole commotion. Naminé smiles sweetly at him, Rikuto nods neutrally and Vanitas scoffs, to no one’s surprise.

“I feel like I’m in a circus, what with all of you clowns around,” Vanitas curls his lip. Sora blinks in surprise and greets him enthusiastically, much to Vanitas’ displeasure.

“We were just starting on lunch when you arrived,” Aqua tells Sora, pulling his focus away from Vanitas and the others. “It shouldn’t take too long to finish cooking it,” she smiles.

Riku tunes out the rest of that conversation -- too many voices all at the same time for his tired brain to parse through, especially when he is focusing so hard on not tripping on the endless stairs of the Mysterious Tower. The haze of dizziness goes away slowly, but that doesn’t help him much when it’s just replaced by exhaustion.

Their entourage slows to a stop on the landing that leads to the kitchen, giving Riku enough brain power to tune back into what everyone is saying.

“We should take Riku straight to bed,” Terra declares, adjusting his hold on Riku.

“We could bring him some soup once it’s ready,” Xion suggests. “He still needs to eat something.”

Decision made, more than half of their group breaks off to head to the kitchen, with Kairi accompanying Terra and Riku to the latter’s room. Five stairsteps later, the pain comes back in full force -- so potent that Riku’s legs go lax on the spot, causing Terra to struggle to keep him from crashing down.

Another commotion; another moment of everyone standing around him awkwardly, concerned but unsure of how to help.

“Jesus, get a grip, man,” Roxas mutters exasperatedly, getting elbowed by Xion for his bluntness. Even _Isa_ seems suitably worried.

Kairi mutters a quick _Cure_ that unscrambles Riku’s brain and clears most of his vision -- enough for him to see Sora, kneeling on a step and peering up at him in distress.

“Sora, why don’t you accompany Riku and Terra upstairs?” Kairi smiles encouragingly, with something almost calculating hiding in her eyes. “We can bring both of you food -- you’re tired too, aren’t you?”

“Sure,” Sora accepts easily, without even glancing at Kairi. “Riku still shares a room with me, right?”

Riku does, but only in theory -- it had been too easy to turn his head and see the mess Sora had left behind; too easy to fall into a spiral of despair late at night when he couldn’t keep the bad thoughts away, wondering if Sora would ever come back to fill the empty space with _life_ once again.

He’s so deep inside his own mind that he doesn’t see Kairi nodding; doesn’t even realize that they’re moving again, step by step, with Kairi staying behind to head to the kitchen and Sora matching his slow pace wordlessly.

His best friend pulls back the covers and helps Terra lay him down on the bed. Riku manages to take off his jacket as Terra deals with his boots; once he’s all set and Sora has covered him up to his waist with the blankets, Riku feels two seconds away from passing out.

“Don’t sleep yet,” Sora pokes him on the shoulder, making himself comfortable by sitting next to Riku -- who doesn’t even notice Terra leaving.

“Easy for you to say,” Riku huffs.

“Tell me how everyone is doing,” Sora prompts him, brushing Riku’s bangs away with a smile.

Another huff. “Kairi has been training more. She’s gotten better pretty fast -- keeps going off to Twilight Town and Land of Departure, when we’re not all together here in the Tower.”

“Who stays here with you, when she’s travelling?”

Riku lets his head loll to the side. “Vanitas, Naminé and Rikuto, mostly,” he replies. “They haven’t figured out where they want to settle yet…”

“Oh, right! I was surprised to see Vanitas and your Replica -- is he going by Rikuto now?”

“Yeah.”

“How did they get here?” Sora inquires, frowning adorably.

“Rikuto was easy,” Riku shrugs. “Ansem the Wise and Ienzo said that my heart was connected to his, something about using that to bring him back and put him into a new replica… As for Vanitas, some of us sensed a weird presence far away that felt like you, so we flew out there and found his heart instead.”

“I can’t imagine him being happy once he woke up,” Sora raises an eyebrow, hands fiddling with one of the edges of Riku’s blanket.

“He sure wasn’t,” Riku snorts. “We nearly left him there, but Ventus was very adamant he should get a second chance too-- and well, since we’ve already been handing out those at will to Lea and Isa and whatnot, we ended up accepting his arguments eventually,” he smiles. Sora laughs.

“That’s good, though! Ventus was right.”

“Of course you’d say so,” Riku rolls his eyes, unable to keep himself from sounding disgustingly fond. Sora sticks his tongue out in response.

“It’s good to see everyone again…” Sora mutters, looking down at his hands. Riku hums in agreement, eyes half-closed.

The door opens then, revealing Kairi and Ventus, weighted down by trays of food. Riku forces his eyes open, scooting backwards until he’s in a half-sitting position.

“Food!” Sora cheers, any signs of his previous pensiveness thrown out of the window as he makes grabby hands in the direction of a tray.

“Go sit on your own bed, you dork,” Kairi grins at Sora, moving the tray away from him.

“Aww, but I’m keeping Riku company!”

“You can do that from over there,” Kairi retorts, unimpressed and unmoved by Sora’s pout. “He doesn’t need you spilling food on him as well.”

“Kairiiii,” Sora whines, making Ventus laugh.

“It’s really nice to have you back, Sora,” he smiles.

Sometimes Riku looks at Ventus and is unable to believe that Roxas’ face has the same range of expressions -- it just doesn’t seem possible. Roxas is all frowns, smirks and a resting bitch face to rival Riku’s, his softer smiles reserved for Xion and his friends at Twilight Town -- Lea as well, on rare occasions. Ventus, on the other hand, grins freely, which is not to say that he isn’t capable of frowning or looking mean, of course. Riku has seen those expressions in him already.

“I’m glad to _be_ back!” Sora grins.

“I’m looking forward to being able to befriend you properly,” Ventus nods.

Riku turns his focus into eating as much of the soup as he’s able, sipping from his cup of water between spoonfuls. Once he’s downed half the bowl, his stomach starts to protest, so he pushes it away with a grimace, not wanting a repeat performance of what happened out on the grass.

Kairi sighs at him. “Well, at least you ate some of it,” she shrugs, setting his tray on the floor next to his bed before she sits on the spot Sora had vacated. She, too, reaches out to brush his hair off to the side. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

“I’m queasy and exhausted,” Riku tells her, rearranging himself on the bed. “But I meant it when I said I have no idea what happened then. It just came out of nowhere.”

Kairi hums, softly concerned, and lays a hand over his heart. “Well, take care, okay? And if you feel it again, you _tell_ us, or I’m going to break your legs,” she threatens him.

“I’ll help Kairi with it, too,” Sora pipes up from his own bed.

“Geez, thanks,” Riku rolls his eyes, pulling the blanket up to his neck.

“We care about you, Riku. You’re our best friend,” Kairi reminds him, ruffling his hair gently, just like his parents used to do when he was a child. He doesn’t have the words to describe how much it soothes him.

“I know,” Riku says, drifting off fast. “You’re my best friends too…” he whispers, the words dragging themselves through his lips. Then, he’s out.

x

Naminé is honestly a little surprised to discover how _comfortable_ the bean bag in Sora and Riku’s room is.

She had sat on it somewhat cautiously, having never seen one before and unknowing of what to expect, but it had molded itself to her body instantly -- leaving her to wonder if the Tower would take her request to have one added to her room as well.

Kairi had asked her to keep an eye on her sleeping boys for the rest of the afternoon, since she had training with Lea and Aqua to do; Naminé had accepted easily, seeing it as an opportunity to draw some of the things that had caught her eye, if nothing else.

Before putting one of her pencils to paper, she gives one last glance at Sora and Riku. The former had fallen asleep shortly after the latter; Kairi had chuckled and called him a chronic napper, unable to rest the urge to sleep when someone else was already down for the count. He lets out a few soft snores every couple minutes, clutching a pillow that appears to have been set aside for that very purpose.

Riku, on the other hand, is sleeping like the dead, motionless if not for the subtle rise and fall of his chest. Ventus had held his fingers under Riku’s nose at some point just to have further confirmation that the boy was, in fact, still alive -- something that Naminé can’t fully fault him for.

She thinks back to what Kairi had shared with her as she starts to draw a boat in the middle of a lake. Her Somebody is understandably worried about Riku’s sudden bouts of malaise; Naminé, too, had been alarmed when he had fallen to his knees in the space of a blink, when not even three seconds ago he’d been holding a conversation without any signs of illness.

Kairi had told her that she’d felt something strange from Riku’s heart when Sora had moved away in that moment, as well as later on, while they were on the stairs; something she can’t really explain but that worries her all the same. From what Naminé’s heard from Ventus, Sora does not remember where he’s been for those past three months, nor how Riku had saved him, and they’re all willing to bet that if Riku had been awake when Sora was asked that, he’d say the same.

While reaching for her color pencils in order to figure out what color she should choose for the empty boat, Naminé steals a glance at Riku, then a quicker one at Sora. Kairi thinks that the reason she’s been getting those weird readings -- so to speak -- from Riku’s heart is because of her role as one of the seven Princesses; Aqua apparently had her suspicions as well, if the look she had shared with Kairi on the steps is anything to go by.

Lastly, Kairi had said that she hopes Naminé will be able to feel something as well, now that she has an idea of what to look out for; although not a Princess of Heart, her memory powers _do_ allow her to peer inside the hearts of others to an extent.

And so, Naminé draws and watches them both, biting her lip as she looks over the blue pencils she has at hand. Vanitas is more crabby than usual due to the presence of so many people on the usually vacant tower; quicker to snap at people, and with a sharper tongue to boot. She doesn’t dislike his company, of course -- his remarks can be quite entertaining at times, and he pretty much never turns his snark on her -- but sometimes she just needs a little peace and quiet, which is something that Vanitas is not in the mood for at the current moment. Rikuto had waved her off with a small smile, clearly used to their mutual friend’s moods already.

Movement from Sora’s bed catches her eyes just as she’s attempting to decide which time of the day is should be for her drawing. He wakes with a big yawn, turning around to briefly look at Riku before sinking deeper into the mattress with a happy sigh. Naminé chuckles involuntarily, causing Sora’s eyes to snap to her in surprise.

“Oh, hey!” he smiles wide, scooting upwards on the bed to see her better. “I think I wouldn’t have noticed you if you hadn’t made a sound -- maybe I’m losing my touch,” he jokes, making her giggle.

“There is no problem with relaxing when you’re somewhere safe,” she tells him, setting her sketchbook more firmly onto her lap.

“That’s true,” he hums. “I’m guessing someone asked you to keep watch?”

Naminé smiles. “That’s correct.”

“What time is it?”

“Almost evening, I think.”

“Already? Man, today is just passing me by, huh.”

“Your body must need the rest,” Naminé tilts her head.

“I guess so,” he laughs. “Were you drawing?”

She nods, a touch more enthusiastic. “I saw a photo of a lake recently, so I’m sketching one.”

“Ohh, the Kingdom of Corona has this really big lake, too! We were going to get on a boat to explore it a little, but the Organization ruined our plans,” Sora pouts.

“That’s a pity,” Naminé says, fingers skimming over her drawing. “But maybe you should try that again someday?”

“For sure,” he nods. “I have so many places I want to show everyone!”

Naminé laughs. “You’ve been to quite a few worlds.”

“Yeah! I want to see what Riku and Kairi would look like in Atlantica, Pride Lands, Halloween Town…” he mutters to himself, voice trailing off as he gets more involved in his imaginings.

She picks a setting for her sketch -- a star-filled night -- in the time it takes Sora to come back from his reverie.

“But anyway! How have you been? Riku told me that you have been living here in the Tower,” he says, appearing to be genuinely interested in her answer -- which doesn’t surprise her much, given that this is _Sora,_ after all.

“I have,” she nods. “I… awoke? In Radiant Garden less than a week after the battle ended, then Riku brought me here,” she explains. “I don’t really know where to go or what I want to do, so I’m grateful to at least have somewhere to stay.”

“You could come back with us to the Islands!” Sora grins. Naminé chuckles.

“That’s very sweet of you to offer, but… I don’t think that would be the right course of action. I’ve talked with Kairi, and we both agree that I need some space to figure out who _I_ am, outside of my powers and my role as her Nobody,” she confesses, pressing her sketchbook to her chest.

“I get it,” Sora smiles; Naminé somehow doesn’t doubt his sincerity in the least, even though her situation is very unique -- but, yet again, this _is_ Sora, isn’t it?

“Plus, I’ve become quite close to Vanitas and Rikuto,” she adds. “I don’t want to be parted from them, I think.”

“Yeah…” Sora muses. “We’ve all had enough of being separated for a lifetime,” he says, looking in Riku’s direction for a long moment. “And I guess that it’d be hard for Rikuto to be on the Islands as well, huh.”

“It’s hard to choose,” Naminé frowns. “We don’t have any strong ties to a place, nor a history anywhere.”

“Well, that only means that you have the freedom to figure out whatever is best for the three of you!” Sora grins, always quick to see the bright side. “You can consider your options and then decide. What places were you thinking about?”

Naminé plays with the corner of a page. “Mostly Land of Departure or Twilight Town. Ventus insists that we’d be more than welcome at the former -- even though Vanitas and Aqua still aren’t on the best of terms -- and I’d get more of an opportunity to learn other types of magic, while Vanitas and Rikuto could train more with their keyblades… As for Twilight Town, it’s where most of our group is -- and it’s very pretty as well!”

“It is! The idea of somewhere in which it’s always twilight sounds weird, but it _works_ ,” he sighs, reminiscing. Naminé nods her assent. “I wish you good luck with the choosing! I’m sure you’ll figure out something good for the three of you,” Sora grins, eyes crinkling at the corners.

“Thank you,” Naminé smiles back.

Sora glances at Riku again. “He hasn’t even stirred through that whole conversation, has he?”

Naminé shakes her head. “He’s been sleeping quite soundly.”

Sora hums with a frown, then visibly pushes the thought away. “We’ll just have to wait for him to wake up, then! Is everyone still around?”

“Yes, they’d been planning on staying for a couple of days even before you came back.”

“Sweet!” he exclaims, pushing the covers away before looking for his shoes. “I’m gonna go meet up with them -- are you going to stay here?”

“I will,” Naminé tells him. “Just in case Riku needs anything.”

“Okay.”

Sora skips out of the door with a wave; Naminé sets her sketchbook aside and draws up her power, peering at Riku’s heart carefully -- waiting for _anything_ to happen.

Riku does not disappoint. As she watches, his heart appears to _glitch_ , almost -- like she had seen a few screens do, or like the desert mirages Roxas and Lea had told her about from their visits to Agrabah. The following second, Riku twitches, then his entire body jerks into wakefulness with a painful-sounding gasp as he clutches his chest and struggles for breath.

Having gathered more than enough evidence to support Kairi’s hypothesis, Naminé runs out of the door in desperation.

“Sora! Sora, wait, come back!” she shouts, nearly causing the boy in question to tumble down the stairs. He looks back at her quizzically for a split second, then hurries up the steps upon seeing her expression -- bypassing her entirely in order to check on Riku.

“Riku, c’mon, breathe,” Sora tells his best friend, propping him up carefully. Naminé goes to his other side and casts a small _Cure_ , exhaling in relief when Riku’s eyes become clear.

“What--” he attempts, being overtaken by a coughing fit immediately after. Naminé pours him a glass of water from the jar that had been left on the bedside table, pressing the cup into his hands carefully. He drinks half of it before falling back onto the bed, his eyes closing involuntarily.

“What the hell happened?” Sora asks, clenching a hand into a fist. “He was sleeping so well!”

Naminé purses her lips, because Sora has a point -- Riku had slept without any signs of feeling ill for four hours before this happened -- before Sora had tried to go elsewhere, away from him.

“I have to call Kairi-- can you keep an eye on him?”

“Of course!” Sora exclaims, seemingly almost offended by the fact that Naminé felt the need to ask.

Naminé takes her gummi phone out of her pencil bag and steps out of their room for a second, quickly dialing Kairi. It takes her Somebody a few rings to answer.

“It happened again,” Naminé says before Kairi can even say hello. “I think your theory is right-- I did feel something wrong from Riku’s heart, like it’s not-- complete? But only when Sora moved away like you said, which doesn’t make any sense,” she bites her lip. Kairi sighs; Naminé can hear the sound of keyblades clashing from her side of the call.

“So there’s more to their stupidity than meets the eye,” she huffs. “Why am I not surprised? I’ll be there soon.”

“Alright,” Naminé says, fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

Sora looks up at her when she reenters the room -- one hand clasped with Riku’s, the other caressing his best friend’s head distractedly.

“You figured something out, didn’t you?” he asks her with a firm, but not accusatory tone, watching her calmly with his impossibly blue eyes. Naminé fidgets all the same.

“Not me,” she replies. “Kairi realized that his collapses always happen when you get distant from him.”

“What?” Sora frowns, turning to Riku again as he thinks. Naminé does the same, taking stock of how Riku appears to have fallen back asleep.

 _Whatever he did must have completely exhausted him,_ Naminé thinks.

“You’re right…” Sora whispers, thumb smoothing over Riku’s hand rhythmically. “But _why?_ ”

Kairi enters the room at that moment, half her hair held back by multicolored hair clips, out of breath from her training and from the endless stairs.

“Kairi!” Sora exclaims, clearly relieved to have her there.

“Hey, Sora,” Kairi greets him, sitting on the other side of Riku’s bed. “How is he?”

“He looked like he was in pain for a moment, but now he’s asleep again,” Sora bites his lip.

“He thrashed around a lot when Sora went out, but as soon as I healed him, he quieted back down,” Naminé explains, retreating to a corner -- feeling as if she’s intruding in their little moment. Kairi is having none of it, however, as she gestures for Naminé to step closer, turning back to Sora once Naminé complies.

“I felt a weird thing from Riku’s heart in the previous two times this happened,” Kairi explains. “I don’t know why-- I think it’s because I’m a Princess of Heart, but we have no idea what that really entails, so,” she shrugs. “I asked Naminé to keep an eye on the two of you, and Riku most of all, because I thought her powers may allow her to see it as well.”

“They did,” Naminé pipes up.

“But what _is_ happening?” Sora presses, obviously frustrated. “Does this mean we can’t move apart? Why is he the only one that feels the consequences of me going away, shouldn’t I feel something too if there’s a problem with his heart that has to do with me?”

“We don’t know,” Kairi sighs, settling a reassuring hand on Sora’s shoulder. “We don’t have much to go on right now.”

“It has to be an effect of whatever he did to bring you back,” Naminé furrows her brow.

“Do you really remember nothing from that?” Kairi asks, prompting Sora to close his eyes and try to recall it. “Naminé, do you think your powers could help him regain that memory?”

“I don’t know,” Naminé bites her lip, brushing her fingers against the links that compose Sora’s memories. “They must have been buried very deep inside his heart.”

Sora tunes back into the conversation with a wince. “If I try, it _hurts_ ,” he says through gritted teeth.

“Then let it be,” Kairi tells him firmly. “We’ll try to figure out what’s wrong in other ways.”

“In the meantime, stick close to him,” Naminé tells Sora, wringing her hands. Sora nods, still watching Riku fixedly.

“We’ll wait for Riku to wake up,” Kairi says, taking out her hair clips, “and then we go straight to Master Yen Sid.”

Sora sighs. “Sounds like a plan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I did change the scene in which Kairi comes back and Sora fades away. Partly because I don't think it's the right tone to have them all playing around and having fun when it happens, and partly because I want to deal with the gang's first real visit to the beach in this fic, eventually.
> 
> The only ship this fic will truly have is Soriku. I'm not even going to get into the mess that is trying to figure out what feelings Kairi may have for Sora or vice versa -- in this fic, they are best friends, and that's it. Kairi rights!!! Also, Riku and Kairi friendship rights!!! Let her go off!!!!!!
> 
> My beta laughed at me for mentioning jesus in this chapter (in Roxas' line), which is indeed funny because,,,, that means jesus exists in the Kingdom Hearts universe,,,, I'm just running with it, because KH gives us no religion to work out off (unlike FFXV, which is what I've been playing around in for the past few years). On that note: boi, let me tell y'all, it was a special kind of hell to have a scene in which s̶̖̲̫̟̤̖̘ ̱̲͠i̫ ̮x͎̺͙͓̗͚͙ ̥̱͈͎̹t̤̦͖̣̹͜ ̵̻͓͉̺̝e̶͖̖͉ ͍̤͚̬̙͘ͅe ̺n̖̭ characters were present. And I managed to mention all of them, and also give twelve of those a line!!! I'd love to say that I'm never doing this again, but who am I kidding. I know myself. I know this bitch. I _will_ do something like this again eventually. I just love friendship too much not to.


	3. Chapter 2

Two hours pass before Riku finally wakes up again.

Sora, Kairi and Naminé had spent a good portion of that time discussing whether they should tell the others about their suspicions -- would it be best to be transparent about the whole situation, or hold it off so as to not cause undue panic? -- eventually settling on letting only Aqua and Mickey know for the time being.

Riku looks alarmed upon seeing the five of them around his bed, sitting up hurriedly. “Is something wrong?” he asks, glancing at each of his friends in turn.

“We don’t know,” Kairi says, having taken some time to shower and change clothes while he slept. “Sora tried to go downstairs, but you seemed to have a repeat of what happened outside and on the way up here; Naminé was in here with you though, thankfully, so she called him back before it got somehow worse.”

“Kairi and Naminé here think there’s somethin’ strange happenin’ with your heart, Riku,” Mickey pipes in, moving closer to the bed. “If that’s the case, then this coulda be serious. We’ve been waitin’ for ya to wake up so we can go to Master Yen Sid.”

“You don’t remember how you brought me back, right?” Sora asks next, hand still clasped to one of Riku’s.

No one had questioned Sora’s insistence to stay at Riku’s side for those two hours. They’re all too familiar with the pain of separation to not see the significance of that action: a refusal to be parted; a reassurance that the other was still there, close enough to touch.

Riku shakes his head. “It’s all fuzzy and indistinct. All I know is that I dived somewhere.”

Aqua sighs. “That’s not surprising. The two of you probably were never meant to be there, wherever that place was.”

“Think you can stand?” Kairi asks.

“Yeah?” Riku frowns, flinging the covers off and going through the motions. He wobbles a bit on his feet, but Sora is quick to lay a supporting hand on his back.

“The others should be making dinner around this time,” Naminé says. “If we want to be quiet about this, we should go now.”

“Right,” Riku nods.

“Are you sure you can walk?” Sora narrows his eyes. Riku responds with a small smile and a noncommittal shrug that reminds Sora of the dark beach they found themselves in after defeating Xemnas for the first time -- how Riku had shrugged his concerns off, only to fall to the sand seconds later.

Sora is understandably unimpressed.

“I don’t trust you,” Sora declares, forcing his best friend to swing an arm over his shoulders and putting his own arm around Riku’s waist, intent on pulling on his belt just like that time on the dark beach.

Riku huffs out a little laugh. “If this will make you feel better.”

“It will. Now c’mon, before we use all our luck and end up catching someone on the the way there.”

The path to Yen Sid’s office is blessedly empty. Mickey had already warned the Master of their visit, so there’d be no need to request an audience on the spot -- they can just get right to it. Sora lets go of Riku cautiously, wanting to make sure that his best friend will truly be able to stand.

Kairi goes first, explaining what she had seen and what her theories are. Naminé is next, telling the wizard what she’d seen from Riku’s heart as well.

“That is indeed troubling,” Yen Sid hums, turning his gaze to Riku. “What happened in your perspective in those instances?”

“I felt a sharp pain in my chest -- one that I can’t really describe -- as well as dizziness and nausea.”

Yen Sid looks at the girls again. “And as soon as Sora got close again, Riku’s heart went back to normal?”

“Yes, Master,” Kairi answers.

“What about you, Sora? Have you felt anything?”

Sora puffs his cheeks out, feeling displeased. “Not really. No pain, no discomfort, no dizziness,” he frowns. It seems supremely unfair that he suffers no ill effects from something that hurts Riku so much.

“It will be difficult to find the problem with such little evidence,” Yen Sid clasps his hands. “I have never heard of anything similar to this, but if Riku’s heart is truly damaged, this could be very grave indeed.”

“But he looks mostly fine now,” Naminé frowns.

“That only means that the damage is hidden away, and thus it will most likely be harder to resolve or heal.” Yen Sid says, stroking his beard.

“What could happen to him?” Kairi asks, wringing her hands.

“Without knowing the extent of the damage, it is hard to say,” the Master shakes his head. “But perhaps Ventus’ case may provide some clues.”

Sora’s stomach drops to his feet upon hearing that. He remembers that night on the Islands so many years ago, when his heart had ached all of a sudden and Riku had told him that maybe somewhere out there, someone needed his help. Only much, much later had he made the connection between that memory and Ventus, who at the time had just been another person they were trying to save.

Would something like that happen to Riku? Would his fractured heart be strong enough to keep on living? Sora remembers how Kairi had been in his first adventure, when her heart had taken refuge in his; remembers the little he had seen of Ventus without his own heart -- sitting motionless, lifeless, just like Kairi had once.

Would _that_ happen to Riku?

Sora’s body goes numb with terror at the thought of his best friend in that state. It had taken more than a decade for Ventus’ heart to return to his body -- how long would it take Riku’s?

Sora clenches his hands into tight fists, focusing on how the nails dig into his skin so he can bring his breathing back into control. He tells himself that he’s _not_ going to lose Riku -- he _can’t_ lose Riku, not his best friend, not _Riku_ \-- but his mind works against him, summoning memories of closing a great white door to the Realm of Darkness with Riku on the other side, or -- an image flashes in his mind as fast as a thought takes to form: Riku standing in front of him like a pillar of light as the darkness heads towards them; his best friend, consumed by the shadows, Sora was powerless to help, to _save_ him--

His head hurts -- his _heart_ hurts -- and Sora thinks there is blood collecting in his fists. He’s scared, he’s _terrified_ , he can’t lose Riku--

The feel of a hand being pressed to Sora’s upper back is so surprising that Sora jumps, breathing hard as if he’s just defeated a Demon Tower all by himself. Riku frowns at him with very obvious concern, putting his right hand on Sora’s shoulder to ground him further.

“Are you okay?” he asks, giving Sora a quick once over. “You look a little green.”

Sora forces himself to take a deep breath, refusing to acknowledge the stares of everyone else.

“I’m fine,” Sora chokes out, relaxing his hands without unclenching them, lest the blood that has indeed flown out of the crescent-shaped wounds he’s inflicted on himself without noticing drip to the floor and give him away.

Riku raises a disbelieving eyebrow, clearly somewhat offended that Sora expects him to believe such a blatant lie.

“Really, I’m okay,” Sora insists, faking a smile. “Just had a bad moment.”

“Could it be another manifestation of what’s happening with Riku?” Naminé inquires; Sora shakes his head emphatically.

“No, no! I really just recalled a bad memory, I’m okay!” he says, then frowns internally; _what_ memory was it? He’s sure it was something very bad -- it had to be, to leave _him_ this panicked -- but when he tries to reach for it, it’s like trying to grab a handful of air.

Riku still doesn’t look fully convinced, but Yen Sid speaks again, so he’s forced to drop it for the moment.

“As I was saying, we do not have the knowledge nor the machinery to study the heart in the way this mystery requires,” he says. “Perhaps you could pay a visit to Radiant Garden and Ansem the Wise, to investigate this further.”

Aqua steps forward. “Would it truly be a good idea to have them travel so soon, Master? Maybe we could wait a few days so they could rest before heading there?”

“We can keep an eye on them for any developments,” Kairi agrees. “If me and Naminé can’t sense anything strange with Riku’s heart unless Sora moves away, is there any guarantee that the scientists could find what’s wrong?”

“The team there has a lotta knowledge and equipment we don’t understand the workings of, so maybe they _could_ sort out what’s wrong, but I agree with Aqua: they gotta rest,” Mickey says.

“What is your stance in this, Sora and Riku?” Yen Sid asks.

“I think they’re right,” Riku responds. “We just don’t know enough yet.”

Master Yen Sid turns to Sora, who withers under the weight of his gaze. Part of him wants to insist they go to Radiant Garden right away, before anything else can happen, but the rest of him knows they _need_ the rest -- so he backs Riku up in his decision with a nod.

“Very well,” the Master nods. “I suggest the two of you pay close attention to your hearts, and to your Dream Eater link -- we do not know how it might behave in this situation. If a week from now there are still no new developments, you may go to Ansem the Wise.”

The six of them say their thanks and leave the room, pausing for a moment right outside the door. Sora sticks close to Riku, even though his best friend appears to have recovered more of his strength during their session with the Master.

“We should head down to have dinner,” Aqua suggests, letting out a slow exhale. “Do you want to keep this between us?”

“I think we can tell some of the others if they ask,” Sora fidgets.

“They’re bound ta find somethin’ suspicious anyways,” Mickey acknowledges. “If we tell ‘em, they might help us keep an eye on whatever’s happenin’.”

“I’m with Sora in this,” Kairi rubs her forehead. “Tell them if they ask, but otherwise keep quiet. It’ll do no good to have them hovering around us.”

“Plus, since it made sense to visit the Master now, we won’t need to lie about where we’ve been,” Naminé adds.

Sora glances at Riku. His best friend gives no indication of having listened to anything they’ve said for the past few minutes, staring fixedly at a section of the wall instead.

“Riku?” Sora inquires quietly, stepping closer to him.

Riku shakes his head slightly. “Sorry, I got lost in thoughts,” he says, giving Sora a small smile. “Shouldn’t we head down now?”

“Sure,” Sora nods, wordlessly leading the way downstairs.

Naminé breaks off from their group once they get to the floor of her bedroom, saying that she always eats dinner once the kitchen becomes less crowded. Riku quietly explains to Sora that Vanitas and Rikuto aren’t big fans of all the noise and people -- which sheds some light into Naminé’s decision to wait the crowd out.

“Who is in charge of cooking today?” Kairi asks Aqua.

“Xion, Isa and Roxas.”

“I hope Xion manages to keep Roxas in line,” Kairi grimaces.

Riku winces as well. “He spends way too much time with Lea,” he remarks.

Kairi laughs. “You can say that again. Isa is good at giving instructions and Xion is good at following them, but Roxas is just a general disaster!”

“I’m holding out for the day he joins the banned list like Lea,” Riku grins.

“There’s a banned list!?” Sora laughs. “Why am I not surprised that Axel’s in it?”

“Maybe because pyromaniacs should never be allowed within three meters of a stove,” Aqua snarks. Mickey chuckles.

They arrive at the kitchen to find a mildly-controlled chaos. Sora is surprised at the size of the room -- it had been considerably smaller in his last visit -- but it stood to reason that it had to grow so it could comfortably hold their expanding group: It now held a mess hall area so they could all dine relatively closer to where the food was made.

Under normal circumstances, Sora would probably join Terra, Ventus, Axel and Donald in what seems like a particularly brutal card game, but he still feels a little too shaken to muster up his usual cheerfulness. As such, he follows Riku when his best friend heads for one of the quiet corners of the room, sitting down next to him with a sigh.

“You can go have fun with the others,” Riku whispers to him, glancing at Axel’s group when one of them lets out a disbelieving shriek. “I’m pretty sure the room isn’t big enough for you to get out of range.”

Sora crosses his arms on the table and uses them as a pillow. “I know,” he says, bouncing his leg slightly. “I just don’t want to.”

Riku gives him a concerned look and a hair ruffle that Sora unabashedly leans into. “If you’re sure.”

“Mm,” Sora hums. “Tell me more about how everyone is doing?”

Riku takes a deep breath. “Roxas, Lea, Isa and Xion have been living in the Old Mansion at Twilight Town so far,” he starts, still messing with Sora’s brown spikes. “It’s not an ideal arrangement, since parts of it are kind of falling apart and it’s… not exactly a place filled with good memories for most of them, but it’s what they have for the moment.”

“Why don’t they buy a new house? I bet they have more than enough money to do that,” Sora wonders, remembering the expression his parents had made when he’d dropped a literal mountain of munny on the dining table upon returning home after defeating Xemnas.

Riku shrugs. “Maybe they haven’t thought about it yet, or they’re waiting for something. I have no idea, really.”

“What about Aqua, Terra and Ventus?”

“They’ve been cleaning up Land of Departure in between leads. It’s a _massive_ place, so it’s slow going.”

Sora hears footsteps approaching them and turns his head to find out it’s Goofy.

“Hey fellas,” he says, giving them a little wave. “Mind if I sit with ya?”

“Sure,” Sora smiles, lifting his head a little. “We haven’t properly talked yet, Goofy!”

Goofy nods. “It’s been super busy ‘round here t’day. Did the ya two rest well?”

“Yeah, I feel better now,” Sora replies, running a hand over the wooden table. “What about you? What’s been going on with you guys?”

“We spent a lotta time lookin’ for ya, Sora,” Goofy scratches his head. “Other than that, just takin’ care o’ stuff at Disney Castle. We’re real glad you’re back with us now.”

“I’m happy to be back,” Sora repeats, smiling genuinely. “I missed you guys,” he says, reaching out to give Goofy a half-hug.

“Aww, we missed ya too,” Goofy chuckles, returning the hug. “It ain’t right to go home without ya, Sora.”

Sora draws back with a rueful smile. He certainly knows how _that_ feels -- the image of the door closing with Riku on the other side flashes through his mind again, making Sora lean closer to Riku and curl a hand around the crook of his best friend’s elbow. Riku makes no comment.

They talk in low tones until dinner’s ready -- at which point Donald and Kairi join their table, bringing chaos to their previously untouched little corner. Donald tells him off wholeheartedly once they’ve finished eating, putting up his usual front as he screams at Sora for going without them and for taking so long to return, but the sting of his words is washed away by the tight hug that follows.

When Sora looks at Riku while Donald updates him on what they’ve been doing, he discovers that his best friend’s eyes are drooping. Riku doesn’t even notice he’s being watched as he slowly starts to nod off; Sora thinks it’s adorable.

“I think we should head back to our room,” Sora says once Donald has finished his piece. “It’s getting late and we still gotta rest.”

“You gotta take better care of yourself,” Donald insists, frowning worriedly.

“I know, I know,” Sora huffs amusedly. “I swear I’m trying.”

“Trying is not enough!” Donald yells as Sora helps Riku to his feet. Sora ignores him entirely, much to the duck’s annoyance.

Sora hugs Donald and Goofy good night, exchanges quick pleasantries with the rest of their friends -- remembering to compliment the cooks for a wonderful meal -- before making his escape with Riku in tow.

Once both of them have changed into their usual sleepwear and brushed their teeth, Sora begins the tedious process of taking out everything that’s found a home inside his battle gear’s pockets. It has become a tradition to do that whenever they have some downtime, in order to see whether they need to make a stop at the nearest Moogle to resupply.

Soon enough, their table is covered in Potions, Ethers, and more Hi-Potions than Sora could ever use in his entire life. He had a habit of hoarding those, always preferring to use a Potion or a Curaga instead of tapping into what is quickly becoming a lifetime supply of Hi-Potions and Elixirs.

Riku snorts at him from his bed. “You and your infinite Elixirs, Sora,” he shakes his head, gummi phone in hand.

“You never know when you’re gonna _really_ need them,” Sora pouts. Seeing Riku fiddling with his phone reminds Sora of the existence of his own device, so he digs through a previously ignored pocket until he pulls it out with a little _‘aha!’_ of success.

Riku amusedly watches Sora hunt for his lost charger for a full three minutes before offering his own, laughing at Sora’s huff of annoyance. Despite what appears to have been three odd months without use -- Sora had overhead the others talk about how long he’d been away and quickly decided to roll with it instead of mourning the loss of yet more months of his life -- the gummi phone is no worse for wear, turning on as quickly as ever.

“You probably won’t be able to use it right away,” Riku warns, sitting atop his covers. “Chip and Dale released some updates you’ll have to download, so that should take some time.”

“What kind of updates?” Sora asks, taking a quick look at his photo gallery before the required downloads can lock him out of his own phone.

“Do you remember how the King had mentioned some problems with the journal and how they had to create a data version of it to figure out what was going on, in the letter we received before our Mark of Mastery?” Riku inquires, continuing after Sora makes a vague noise of agreement. “Well, that data version of the journal included its own versions of us.”

Sora lifts his head to frown at his best friend. “What do you mean?”

Riku crosses his legs. “Exactly what I said; the data contained in the journal was a recollection of your first adventure, and so in the process of digitizing it, it made a data version of everyone mentioned in the journal. Including you and me.”

“So there’s another me out there?” Sora narrows his eyes. “And a _third_ you?”

“Hey, I’d argue that Roxas and Xion are kind of versions of you too, so you still have more than me,” Riku retorts. “Anyway, yeah. A little fourteen year old you and a little fifteen year old me, made of data.”

“That’s weird,” Sora hums. “Not the weirdest thing we’ve ever seen, sure, but still pretty weird.”

Riku snorts. “So, a few weeks ago, Chip and Dale decided to make our data selves available to all gummi phones, to serve as virtual assistants of some sort,” he waves ones of his hands. “You can imagine the comments I’ve been getting from the others,” he snarks, much to Sora’s amusement.

“Our first adventure seems so long ago,” Sora muses, tracing the edges of the gummi phone with his index finger. Riku turns his head away, staring at some point Sora cannot discern.

“Yeah.”

Sora’s heart softens as he watches his best friend. He knows Riku doesn’t really like to remember the things he did at that time -- how easily he had let himself be manipulated by Maleficent and Ansem.

“How long do you think the update should take?” Sora asks, bringing the conversation back to more comfortable territory.

Riku hums. “It took about half an hour for me, but since it’s not the only one you’re downloading, it could take an hour or two.”

Sora pouts and sets his gummi phone on the nightstand before going back to his bottomless pockets.

“You were almost drifting off in the kitchen -- did preparing for bed wake you up?” Sora chuckles, taking the last Mega-Elixir out of his shorts.

“It did,” Riku rolls his eyes. “Now I’m all alert.”

“What a pity,” Sora grins.

“You’re just happy to have company for a little longer,” Riku raises an eyebrow. Sora shrugs.

“I like spending time with you,” he says easily. Riku’s cheeks go a little pink and he looks away again -- Sora catches a split-second glimpse of a mighty frown that causes him to narrow his eyes, but Riku is quick to smooth his expression back into neutrality.

Riku clears his throat. “I can’t help but feel restless.”

“I get you,” Sora sighs, setting his clothes away after confirming that all that’s left in his pockets are leftover synthesis materials. “Do you have any books here at the Tower?”

“I do,” Riku replies, giving Sora a quizzical look. “Why?”

“We could do like when we were kids and read a book together,” Sora suggests, trying to hide a grin.

Riku rolls his eyes with an amused huff. “You mean, _I_ could read you a book while _you_ do absolutely nothing.”

“Hey, I’d be listening! That’s not nothing!”

“I call bullshit on that.”

Sora sticks his tongue out. “I reject your claim.”

“Sure you do,” Riku snarks, standing up and making his way to a shelf Sora hadn’t paid attention to before. “I bought this series before our Mark of Mastery exam,” he says, picking up a box and depositing it on Sora’s lap.

“‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’?” Sora reads, turning the set around in his hands. “Olympians as in, from Olympus? From Herc’s world?”

“I guess so,” Riku shrugs.

“But how is this possible?” Sora frowns, taking out the first book from the series. “Where did you buy this?”

“Back home.”

Sora exhales slowly. “Man, I don’t even know if I want to question this.”

“Yeah, I don’t either,” Riku snorts. “I looked it up while we were at the Islands, but even though it seems to have the same gods you’ve mentioned to me, the story is completely different.”

“No Herc?” Sora looks up at him.

“No Hercules,” Riku nods.

“Huh.”

“The plot sounds interesting, though.”

“Count me in, then,” Sora grins wide, handing Riku the first volume. Riku rolls his eyes yet again.

“Where do you want to do this?”

“The bean bag!” Sora exclaims, making a beeline to it. Said bean bag is his favorite piece of furniture in the entire room; something he had asked the Tower for without much hope of having his wish granted once he learned how the rooms worked, but that the Tower had gone above and beyond on to grant. It’s big enough to hold both him and Riku, despite how stupidly tall his best friend has gotten -- Sora would bet they could even add Kairi to the pile without much discomfort.

Riku indulges him with a fond smile, laying down on the bean bag first. Sora hurries to follow, curling up to Riku’s side in a motion that reminds him of their many childhood sleepovers.

It takes a bit of work to make themselves comfortable, given that Sora insists on using Riku’s left shoulder as a pillow, thus making it hard for Riku to use one of his arms. Sora compromises by offering to hold the left side of the book, which Riku accepts eventually.

If Sora positions his head just right and _focuses_ , he can hear Riku’s heartbeat. The steady pulse calms some hidden, deep pit of anxiety within him; every beat telling Sora that _Riku’s here, Riku’s here._ When his best friend starts to read, the low vibration of his voice serves to soothe Sora further still, until he’s lying there in a near trance, submersed in both the story and the voice.

Once Riku finishes the first chapter, he jostles Sora a little bit, laughing quietly.

“Did you fall asleep?” he asks. Sora lifts his head to stare at him, offended.

“I did not! I was just caught up in the story,” he huffs.

“Alright, alright,” Riku mollifies him, giving Sora’s brown spikes a ruffle. “Sorry for suggesting you took a perfect opportunity to nap,” he teases.

“Rikuuu,” Sora whines. “When have I ever fallen asleep while you were reading?” he puffs his cheeks out, and he’s right; Sora has never been able to fall asleep while listening to Riku -- his usually fragmented attention would always gather in a single point whenever his best friend read to him as a child.

As they grew older and slightly more distant, their sleepovers had gotten rarer, so their little shared reading sessions had stopped entirely. Sora has always been a little too restless to find true joy in sitting down to read a book, though not from lack of trying; he _loves_ stories -- he just has no patience to get through them by himself.

But Sora has never had a problem with focusing on Riku. They’d sit on the couch while one of their moms made dinner and Riku would read a chapter or two at a time, practicing his speed and pronunciation as Sora simply _listened_.

“I guess you’re right,” Riku admits, giving him a soft smile. “You want to get through another chapter?”

Sora takes stock of his best friend’s expression, noting how the tiredness seems to be catching up with him once more.

“Sure,” he decides at last. figuring that he’ll put Riku to bed after it ends.

Another chapter becomes three more in what feels like the blink of an eye, Riku barely pausing to take a breath due to how interesting the start of the story is. Once he starts to yawn mid-sentence, however, Sora decides they’ve read for long enough, plucking the book from Riku’s hands as soon as the fourth chapter is done.

“Hey!” Riku protests, being immediately overtaken by a yawn so big it makes him tear up; Sora tries his damnedest, but is helpless to stop himself from yawning right back.

“Nope, bed time,” Sora declares, gently pushing a few Hi-Ethers away to make a little space for the book on the table. “Come on,” he says, taking hold of Riku’s hands and pulling him to his feet with one mighty heave.

“You’re overdoing it,” Riku huffs.

“Don’t care! Off to bed you go!”

Riku swats him away but does as he’s been told, arranging the covers over himself until only the upper half of his head is uncovered, haloed by an ethereal crown of silver hair. Sora cheekily tucks him in, chuckling when Riku insults him under his breath.

Sora turns off the main light before getting to his own bed, leaving only their crescent moon nightlight and the infinite stars outside their window to keep the darkness at bay. Some small, instinctual part of him watches the shadows warily, waiting for round, yellow eyes to appear, but Sora pushes it back down with the ease of practice -- reminding himself that he’s safe in the Tower and that their friends are all close by.

Not feeling particularly sleepy yet, Sora picks up his gummi phone from the nightstand and is pleased to discover that it has finished updating. Pulling up the menu prompts the data version of himself to blink into existence with a wide smile, waving at him cheerfully.

“Hello, other me!” Data-Sora says.

Sora glances at Riku to see if the sound had bothered him, but his best friend appears to be already deeply asleep.

“Hey, little me,” Sora grins back. “I gotta admit that this is a little strange.”

“I know, right?” Data-Sora laughs, folding his hands behind his neck. “Man, it’s really good to have you back!”

Sora scratches his cheek, slightly awkward. “Yeah,” he says simply, unable to muster the excitement from all the other times he’s replied to that same sentiment in the past ten or so hours. Data-Sora, true to its original, just rolls with it.

“How is your Riku?” he asks, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Sora looks over the space that separate their beds again.

“He’s sleeping,” Sora answers with a frown. “But wait, why are you asking? Aren’t you in his gummi phone too?”

Data-Sora looks away with a rueful smile. “I do have access to it, but I do my best to not go there,” he confesses, so low that Sora has to bring the device closer to his head to hear it.

“Why?”

Data-Sora smiles a little wider, making eye contact again. “It caused him pain to see me while you were still missing,” he shrugs. “And I never want to cause any version of Riku pain if I can help it, so whenever _your_ Riku needs the help, I send _my_ Riku his way instead.”

“Where _is_ your Riku, by the way?”

“Hmm? Oh, he’s keeping an eye on things at Disney Castle! He’s in charge of keeping it all running smoothly while I go around helping whoever needs it. A lot of new devices have been made for all your friends!”

“So what are some of the things you can do?”

Data-Sora taps the list of synthesis items that Jiminy had made and scrolls through it for a moment.

“I can help you keep track of stuff,” he says, switching to the list of enemies they’ve encountered. “If you need to write something down but don’t have the time to do it yourself, I can do it for you. I can make calls if you need me to, as well,” he continues, opening Sora’s contacts. “I’m gonna take the liberty to add everyone’s numbers here so that you don’t have to ask them yourself,” he adds as an afterthought, voice trailing off at the end as he creates new contacts almost too fast for Sora to keep up.

“You can do a lot of stuff!”

“Yep!” Data-Sora grins proudly. “My Riku can do way more stuff than me, obviously-- I’d tell you about it, but it’s not like I really know what half the words he’s told me mean,” he chuckles. Sora laughs with him.

“I’m looking forward to having you around,” Sora says earnestly.

“Me too!” Data-Sora smiles, then glances at the clock on the corner of the screen before turning to Sora with a reproachful look. “Shouldn’t you be asleep already? It’s almost one in the morning!”

Sora laughs sheepishly. “You caught me,” he says in a joking tone. “But you’re right, little me, it’s bedtime.”

“Do you want me to mute your notifications while you’re sleeping?” Data-Sora asks.

“Sure, I guess,” Sora shrugs. Data-Sora taps the screen a few times and then grins.

“There, you’re all set. Sleep well! If you need my help, just call me!” he waves, blinking out of existence before Sora can even try to reply.

A few blinks and a sigh later, Sora deposits the device back on the nightstand. He fluffs up the pillow and kicks the blankets into submission, but his mind is still too active to allow him to drift off easily, leading him to roll around in bed with increasing annoyance until he falls asleep by sheer force of will.

x

Sora snaps awake a few hours later, agitated by a nightmare that slips from his fingers as soon as he opens his eyes. He turns to the window to try and gauge how long it has been since he fell asleep, but the unchanging sky that surrounds the Tower provides him with no clues whatsoever.

He is then bowled over by a bout of homesickness so fierce that it almost steals the oxygen from his lungs, making him realize that he _misses_ the constellations he’d spent so many hours gazing at; that he misses his parents, running around the Play Island, and even how unbearably humid and warm the weather back home could be.

Flying across the universe while working to stop the nefarious plans of their various enemies hadn’t left Sora much time for this kind of introspection. They were always worrying about what their next step should be, or about when their moment of peace would end, or where Maleficent or the Organization would strike next. The rare moments of downtime they got were spent by Sora in either wondering if Kairi was okay back at the Islands or worrying about Riku; home never quite made it to the list.

But now, with all of their friends safe and with Xehanort defeated at last, Sora finds himself missing his dad’s hugs, his mom’s singing, and even the cakes that Riku’s mom made every week for their little trio to eat as dessert. The two weeks they spent in the islands after defeating Xemnas had filled some of those voids, sure, but two weeks were not enough to make up for two _years_ of absence. Right after that, they were summoned once again in order to take their Mark of Mastery exam, unraveling yet another adventure.

Sora sits up with a weary sigh, rubbing his eyes a little more roughly than he usually would. He glances at Riku yet again, uncaring of the multicolored spots that hinder his vision, and is pleased to notice that his best friend had changed positions in the time Sora spent asleep; the proof of movement curbing part of the nameless fear that lives inside his chest.

It takes less than a minute of quietly watching Riku for the poisonous whispers from the deepest corners of his mind to start floating up; brushing against the jagged edges of his heart to feed on the vulnerabilities he keeps hidden under lock and key. In a split-second decision, Sora throws the covers off of himself and sneaks under Riku’s blankets, holding his breath when the other frowns and shifts in his sleep.

Sora exhales quietly when Riku quiets back down, counting up to twenty before sliding closer his best friend’s comforting, familiar warmth. He adopts a position similar to the one he had been in earlier on the bean bag: using Riku’s left shoulder as a pillow, pressed close to the other’s side -- but since there’s no need to help Riku in holding a book now, Sora is free to lay his hand atop his best friend’s heart.

Feeling the closest thing to contentment that he’s felt in months, surrounded by Riku’s scent and lulled by the sound of his heart, Sora drifts off into peaceful dreams at last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided that Sora doesn't remember what happened in the first time they went to the Keyblade Graveyard. He knows something bad happened and remembers going to the Final World and defeating the Lich, but the Badness™️ of that first visit is buried deep in his heart. The panic brings it back, but just for a split second.
> 
> My bff and beta made a note on the section I had Sora making a little space for the book on the table; she laughed and called it an enormous table, since it had "99 hi-potions, 50 mega elixirs, 80 elixirs and god knows how many ethers, mega ethers e tents" on top of it (she made up the numbers obviously but they're probably pretty accurate). I stand by the opinion that a magic tower is entitled to magic furniture, so: endless table.
> 
> I'm having fun with crafting this little mystery! You know the basics of what happened, since you've read the prologue and thus have memories the boys don't, but you don't know the consequences yet, or how it'll be fixed ;^) I have to admit also that I had fun stabbing Sora multiple times with the angst knife on this chapter. I'm a fan of the reading that has him putting up a fun and cheerful front for everyone, hiding how deeply things hurt him in the process; we gotta work on that talkin', man. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! >;3c


	4. Chapter 3

Many hours later, Sora wakes up to his bladder screaming bloody murder. It’s _torture_ to be obligated to leave the warm and cozy cocoon he’s sharing with Riku, but Sora drags himself out of bed anyway, stumbling into the ensuite bathroom with half-closed eyes.

He stands in the doorway to the bedroom once he’s relieved himself and washed his face, quietly wishing that the Tower had a sun to illuminate their bedroom. Waking up to find everything still dark is an experience Sora will probably never get used to; even though he feels well-rested, the dark sky that greets him from the other side of the window makes getting back into bed very, very alluring.

Sora wonders if he should return to his own bed or stick to Riku’s. The former feels _wrong_ , somehow; he frowns and pokes this feeling, turning it around in his mental hands. After some consideration, he figures that the reason it seems icky to him is that to return to his own bed while Riku is still asleep would feel like _hiding_ , in a manner of speaking; would Riku even know that Sora spent most of the night in his bed?

He rebels at the thought.

For Sora, pretending it hadn’t happened implies that he’s ashamed of having done it, and Sora _refuses_ to even _appear_ ashamed of being affectionate with his friends -- especially with Riku, his best and oldest friend. His mind set, he scurries back to Riku’s bed, curling up into the same spot he had left with a happy little sigh.

Sora thinks he had been dreaming about running around the Country of Musketeers before being rudely awakened by his bladder. It makes him realize that it’s been some time since he’s seen his dream eaters; he giggles a bit upon remembering his Meow Wow’s enthusiastic licks, discovering that he misses them fiercely.

He dozes off for another hour or so, mind churning about sluggishly as he basks in the comfort of a soft bed and good company -- even if said company is still one hundred percent asleep. Eventually, though, Sora’s stomach starts to rumble, prompting him to wonder what time is it, then to realize there’s no food in their bedroom and that with Riku still asleep, Sora has no way of getting breakfast by himself.

Forced to leave the bed once again, Sora picks up his gummi phone to send Kairi a desperate request for food, complete with plenty of flattery to sweeten the deal. Not that he thinks she’ll deny his request -- she is well aware of the situation he’s in, after all -- but it never hurts to be thorough.

While waiting for her reply to come in, he notices that it’s almost 11 a.m. and marvels at how long he’s slept -- and more so at how long _Riku_ has been sleeping. There’s a pretty good case to be made that all this sleeping is a consequence of what’s going on with him, so Sora makes a mental note to discuss it with Kairi once she arrives.

Kairi replies to his very flattering message with a rolling eyes emoji, a snickering emoji, and a warning that Xion and Chirithy will be accompanying her. Sora gets pretty excited about that; he hasn’t truly had an opportunity to hang out with Xion yet, and though he had caught glimpses of Chirithy at dinner last night, he still misses the little guy.

Xion coming over, however, means that if Sora wants to talk with Kairi about the situation with Riku, they’ll have to explain it to her as well -- but Sora discards the worry as soon as it pops up, doubtful that she’s the type of person that would go around telling everyone the news, ensuing a fair amount of panic amidst their group in the process.

In preparation for their arrival, Sora quickly changes into a different outfit and throws a bit more water on his face so as to appear less of a mess. Upon returning to the bedroom, he is once again gripped by the uncertainty of which bed to go, but seeing as his mind hasn’t changed in the hour since that happened last, he goes to Riku’s bed yet again -- this time, however, he sits atop the covers next to Riku’s hip.

Xion is polite enough to knock on Kairi’s behalf. Sora allows them entry with a slightly raised voice, making grabby hands at the tray Kairi is holding as soon as his second best friend comes into sight.

“Thank you, oh great goddess, for your wonderful gift. I now owe you my life,” he says, bowing multiple times. The exaggeration causes the desired effect: Kairi snorts in amusement and Xion giggles.

“What did I tell you about eating on your own bed?” Kairi chides him, withholding the tray from him. Sora gives her what he knows to be his most adorable puppy eyes, complete with a huge pout.

He hopes against hope that she’ll be able to realize that his unwillingness to move is not only due to their usual and playful back and forth, but also from his desire to stay as close to Riku as he can in the middle of this new, unforeseen predicament they’ve found themselves in -- another drop in the bucket of things they’ve had to deal with over the years.

Sora knows his wordless plea has been granted when her face softens into an indulgent, rueful smile. He goes through all the motions of teasing her over his ‘win’, of course -- it’s a well-learned dance in their friendship -- but silently, he blesses her very existence.

He’s shoved half a slice of toast inside his mouth by the time Kairi pointedly clears her throat, gesturing at Xion and Chirithy when Sora looks up at her with a deer in the highlights expression. Sora forces the toast down with a sip of cocoa, much to the girls’ amusement.

“Sorry!” He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “Hi Xion, hi Chirithy! It’s so nice to see you guys!” he greets, giving them his trademark grin.

“It’s nice to see you too, Sora,” Xion smiles. Chirithy shifts happily in the girl’s arms, waving at Sora with its adorable little paw.

Kairi directs Xion to the bean bag, taking a seat in Sora’s bed as he proceeds to devour more food.

“You’re going to need a few more chairs in here, I think,” she comments with a raised eyebrow. Sora gives the entire room a once over; the only places that one can sit on are the beds and the singular bean bag.

“You’re probably right,” Sora admits. He’ll ask the Tower for it later -- the magic only works if no one is inside the room, after all.

“And a mini-fridge,” Kairi hums, glancing at Riku.

“Absolutely,” Sora agrees. “You can tell Xion about the thing while I finish eating,” he suggests, certain that she’ll be way better at explaining what little information they have.

He listens attentively to said explanation, glancing at Xion and Chirithy periodically to gauge their reactions. Xion frowns concernedly and Chirithy tuts around in apparent distress; Sora remains silent as he destroys the apple Kairi had brought him, eventually realizing that she brought enough food for Riku as well -- so he could eat whenever he wakes, that is.

Xion exhales slowly once Kairi finishes her piece, looking down at her lap. “I had kind of figured out that something weird was going on,” she says, quietly petting Chirithy’s head, “but still, this is worrying.”

“Yeah,” Kairi nods, taking off her shoes before crossing her legs. “How are you feeling, Sora?”

“I am honestly feeling fine,” Sora shrugs, putting the tray on the floor after deciding that setting it on the nightstand might be a bad idea -- the tray might be a little too big for it. “Slept kinda weirdly, but,” he shrugs again, a little frustrated. “Nothing to report, really.”

“What about Riku?”

“He’s been normal as far as I’ve seen. He’s changed positions a few times over the night, but for all I know he hasn’t opened an eye since midnight.”

“And it’s already half past eleven,” Xion says, gummi phone in hand. “Could this be just a result of how tired he’s been for the last few months?”

“It’s unlikely,” Kairi huffs. “Sleeping like this is not like him at all, even when he’s sick.”

Sora makes a noise of agreement. “He’s usually out of bed before nine, no matter what time he went to sleep. I think something inside his brain just rebels at the thought of lazing around all morning.”

Kairi snorts. “Which is the complete opposite of what _you_ do,” she teases. Sora sticks her tongue out at her in response.

“So you think this may be a side effect of what’s happening with his heart,” Xion guesses.

“It would make sense,” Chirithy pipes up. “Whatever he did in order to bring you back must have taken a lot out of him,” it tells Sora. “You paid the price of misusing the power of waking, and he’s paying the price of dragging you back.”

Sora pulls up a leg and hugs it loosely, resting his chin on his knee. Deep down, he doesn’t feel like that was a particularly good choice, seeing as he doesn’t feel worthy of that kind of sacrifice. He worries that they’ll never find a way to fix this, and thus Riku will end up having to spend the rest of his life stuck to Sora without any chance for a moment of peace.

He does his best to push those feelings down, of course -- to bury them _deep_ , where its brethren can keep it company -- but the worry in the girls’ faces tells him he wasn’t quick enough in doing so. Kairi thankfully takes mercy on him.

“There’s actually something I thought about last night that I should have done before,” she says, smoothing a hand over her shorts.

“What is it?” Sora perks up.

“We’ve all been focusing on checking Riku’s heart, which of course makes sense; he’s the one that’s being affected and all. But _you’re_ also involved, Sora,” she says, presenting the full force of her blue-violet gaze to Sora. “I did take a look at _your_ heart yesterday -- I’d have to be crazy not to, of course -- but that’s what it was: a glance: one that showed nothing wrong. But while I was trying to fall asleep yesterday, I realized that I should have looked deeper, instead.”

“Yeah?” Sora prompts her to continue. “You don’t even need to ask for my permission, Kai.”

Kairi closes her eyes; Sora can’t help but squirm a little, not quite knowing what to expect. Will it tingle? Tickle? But after a few seconds, he calms back down, sensing nothing different.

“I knew it,” Kairi curses. Xion perks up.

“What did you find?”

“His heart is also incomplete,” Kairi replies. “Not quite as much as Riku’s appears to be whenever Sora gets distant from him, but still noticeably damaged.”

“But why couldn’t you see that before?” Sora scratches his head.

“It’s hard to explain,” Kairi rubs her forehead. “It’s not missing a huge chunk -- I’d say maybe fifteen or twenty percent? But what _is_ there is so bright that it hides what’s missing.”

“Bright?” Xion tilts her head.

“It’s like... “ Kairi bites her lip. “A solar eclipse?” she winces. “When the moon starts to get in front of the sun, you don’t really notice it at first, because the sun puts out so much _light_ that it makes up for what’s being blocked from sight,” she explains. “That’s kinda how this feels like, I guess.”

“I think I get it,” Xion hums. “This means that Sora should also experience some consequences, right?”

Kairi rubs her wrists distractedly, visibly annoyed. “Probably? I don’t know.”

“I still feel totally fine, though,” Sora pouts.

“You have to be careful,” Chirithy warns him. “A damaged heart is _way_ more vulnerable to the darkness.”

Sora turns to Chirithy. “Do you know anything that could help us?” he pleads.

“I never heard of anything like this before,” it shakes its head. “In fact, it’s a miracle that you’re only missing fifteen to twenty percent of your heart, after all you’ve done.”

“What did Riku say about how he saved Sora, again?” Xion turns to Kairi.

“Just that he followed their link, then dove,” Kairi shrugs. “I don’t really understand diving all that well -- I haven’t gotten to that part in my training yet.”

“It’s what we do to reach the Sleeping Worlds,” Sora explains, fiddling with the flap of one of his pockets.

“But how would you have gotten there?” Kairi asks.

“He must have been on the Final World,” Chirithy announces.

Xion frowns. “Why would diving allow him to reach that place?”

“The Final World is where people whose body and heart perished at the same time go,” Chirithy replies. “The edges of sleep and death overlap--”

“--and one can’t help the occasional crossover,” Sora mutters, feeling a stab of pain reverberate through his skull.

“Exactly,” Chirithy nods. “So Riku must have been able to reach Sora because of that.”

“While that sounds like extremely valuable information, it doesn’t help us with figuring out what happened,” Kairi clicks her tongue.

Xion nods dejectedly. “It looks like we’ll have to wait and see,” she says. “What are you planning on doing in the meantime?” she asks Sora.

“Eh?”

“Well, if Riku keeps sleeping like today, you’re going to be stuck in here a lot. And we haven’t spent a lot of time together, but I have the feeling that you might have some trouble with that,” she smiles. Kairi snorts.

“Oh, absolutely,” his traitorous best friend smirks -- the atmosphere of the room being successfully lifted at last. “Sora can’t deal with quiet.”

“Yes I can!” Sora protests, crossing his arms petulantly.

“Honey, I’ve known you for over a decade. If you don’t find something to keep yourself entertained with, you’re going to be bouncing off the walls in a matter of _days_ ,” she jokes -- but her tone still carries a hint of sincere worry.

“Well, I just gotta find that something to do, then,” he huffs, leaning backwards until he’s using Riku as a backrest. Yes, he might go a little bit stir crazy in the following days, but he’ll suffer in confinement for a _month_ if it means Riku staying safe and healthy.

It’s just his luck that Riku chooses that moment to wake up, obviously; his sleep-rumpled friend gives him the cutest confused glance, making Sora coo internally.

“Why are there so many people in our room?” he asks, voice rough from all the sleeping he’s done.

“That’s what happens when you blackout for twelve hours,” Sora sings, draping himself over Riku more fully.

Riku narrows his eyes. “Were you seriously using me as a backrest?” he says, completely ignoring Sora’s previous sentence -- to no one’s surprise. Sora’s only response is a grin.

Riku pulls him by the arm into a loose but still pretty firm headlock, rubbing his knuckles into Sora’s scalp with the ease of someone who has done it hundreds of times before. Sora screams and kicks out in protest as the girls laugh.

“Meanie!” Sora yells.

“Sloucher,” Riku fires back.

“Boys,” Kairi rolls her eyes fondly. “I don’t want to watch the two of you throw insults back and forth _again_ ,” she raises her eyebrows, prompting Xion to hide a giggle behind her hand.

Sora pouts; Riku clears his throat with a grimace. “Do we have any water?”

“We have juice!” Sora exclaims, picking up a glass from the tray by the bed. Riku plucks it out of his hands and downs it in one go. “Hey! I was gonna drink some of that!”

“Too bad,” Riku smirks, rolling onto his side so as to see the tray and steal food from it. “God, it’s been ages since I’ve felt this hungry,” he mumbles, taking a huge bite from the slice of toast Sora hadn’t eaten.

“And you call _me_ a bottomless pit,” Sora narrows his eyes.

“I have way more muscle to maintain than you,” Riku grins.

“I _have_ muscle!”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

Sora jumps on top of him with a war cry -- making Riku drop the muffin he’d just picked up -- pinching and tickling whatever patch of skin he can reach as Riku alternates between laughing and shouting. Their little tussle ends when Sora almost falls off the bed, saved from cracking his skull open on the stone floor by his desperate, last second grip on the covers.

They stop for a moment to catch their breaths, but with just a glance at his best friend, Sora starts laughing heartily, making Riku roll his eyes.

“What _now_?” Riku asks.

“Your hair looks ridiculous!”

“Says _you_ , porcupine,” Riku retaliates, reaching out to mess Sora’s hair even further. A lull on their banter allows them to catch the trail end of Xion’s question:

“--like that?”

“ _Yes_ , they’re always like that,” Kairi replies, ever-suffering. “It’s how they’ve been since before I met them, and it’s probably how they’ll be even when they’re all old and gray.”

“Rude,” Sora frowns. Kairi gives him a deadpan stare.

“Quite rude,” Riku nods, attacking the abandoned muffin.

“Oh, right! I was gonna ask, but then Riku interrupted me,” Sora says, giving said best friend the stink eye. “Xion, what have you been doing in your spare time?”

Xion turns a lock of hair behind her ear. “I’ve been learning a few things from Naminé and Aqua. Drawing, knitting, glasswork. I’ve also picked up the guitar! Though it’s slow going, since I’m learning on my own.”

“Riku plays the guitar!” Sora grins.

“Not a lot,” Riku retorts.

“Still means you play it,” Sora fires back. Xion smiles.

“Do you think you could give me some tips?” she asks, clearly enthusiastic.

Riku scratches his neck. “Sure. It’s been a few years, but I should still know the basics.”

“Thank you!”

Sora turns to Kairi. “What about you, Kairi? Pick up anything new?”

“A little. Aqua is a crafts master,” she laughs.

“Maybe if we ask nicely, she could teach this dork some new tricks,” Riku jokes, tilting his head in Sora’s direction.

“Sounds like a good idea, actually,” Sora muses, looking at where Chirithy has been playing around with his potion pile for the past few minutes. “Could be useful.”

“I’m sure Naminé wouldn’t mind giving you some drawing tips if you asked her,” Xion suggests.

“Maybe then Sora would move up from stick figures,” Riku teases, knocking Sora’s shoulder with his own.

Sora jostles him in return. “Not like _you’re_ any better.”

Riku shrugs. “I mean, we’ve never _tried_ to go any further than stick drawings.”

“They were always too hyper to sit still long enough to learn,” Kairi explains to Xion, who makes a noise of understanding.

“Well, you have a good opportunity to do so now,” Xion smiles widely, then becomes pensive. “It’s a little strange to have so much free time. When I was in the Organization, we had missions to complete every day, and then we’d have the rest of the day to ourselves. More recently, while searching for you, Sora, we’d travel from world to world, looking for clues,” she smoothes out her skirt. “But now that you’re back, what are we supposed to do, or work towards?”

A heavy silence blankets the room after that; Sora looks down at his lap, noticing that Kairi and Riku have done the same.

The question of what the future holds for them is one that Sora hasn’t yet had the time to ponder, and if what he knows of Riku remains true, he is most likely in the same situation. Sora would bet that Kairi has more of an idea of what she wants to do, now that Xehanort is gone and the worlds are -- for all intents and purposes -- _safe_.

In two years of running around the worlds, helping whoever they could and defeating as many heartless as possible, peace seemed like a distant concept. The experience of living his life day by day that Sora had while journeying with Donald and Goofy had gotten him used to a level of immediacy that skewed his perception; Sora always felt as if he had plenty of time to figure out what he’d do with his life once it was all _over_. Yet, here he stands: having reached peace at last, but remaining undecided.

Kairi is the one to break the silence.

“I don’t know,” she admits with a shrug. “We’ve all gone through a lot-- some of us more than others,” she adds, lifting her head to make eye contact with Sora and Riku in turn. “I _do_ know some of the things that I want to do: I want to keep training in order to get stronger. I want to be able to hold my ground against any of you,” she declares firmly. “But other than that? I really have no idea.”

“It’s not like we’d be able to just go back to the Islands, finish school and get a job,” Riku says. “We’ve all changed.”

“I don’t think I could settle down for a quiet life, now that I know what’s out here,” Sora confesses. Riku and Kairi echo the sentiment.

“I think I want to try,” Xion exhales. “To… have as close to a normal life as I can, because I never had the opportunity to do that-- to learn who I am outside of my skills or my role in the Organization. I’ve talked with Roxas and Axel about this and they think so, too,” she leans back, watching her hands closely.

“You’re staying in Twilight Town, right?” Sora asks.

“Yes,” Xion smiles. “It’s the place Roxas and I know best, and it has Roxas’ friends as well.”

Sora notices that she doesn’t call Hayner, Pence and Olette _her_ friends too, but lets that pass.

“You’d what, go to school and stuff?” he says instead.

Xion laughs. “Roxas wants to, but I don’t think that would be a very good idea to do on a whim. We have the bodies of sixteen year olds, but we have never set one foot inside a school in our lives,” she grins. Kairi chuckles as well.

“Sora and Riku have been out of school for two years,” she points out. “Even I have missed a few months now,” she shrugs.

“We’re all terrible students,” Riku deadpans.

“Maybe we could talk with Master Yen Sid and the King about that?” Kairi wonders. “See if there’s a way we can get to finish school without having to try to explain long absences or the lack of any previous records.”

“That’s a good idea,” Xion says, intrigued. “I know that Aqua, Terra and Ven are planning on eventually turning the Land of Departure into a school for keyblade wielders, but that’d be a nice complement.”

“Are they really?” Sora widens his eyes.

“Yeah! They said that they want there to be more wielders to protect the peace in the future,” Xion explains. “So that a situation like ours doesn’t happen again -- since there’d be trained guardians to keep the worlds safe from Heartless and go against any bigger enemies that might appear.”

“That’s a good idea,” Riku nods. “We could learn from them, and later on teach others ourselves,” he says, combing a hand through his glorious bedhead.

“Exactly,” Xion says. “Roxas, Axel and I already promised to help out when we can, but we don’t want that to be our primary goal.”

“Yeah,” Kairi sighs. “I get that.”

The quiet moment that follows and hangs around for a handful of minutes is broken by the angry sound of a stomach rumbling; Riku, Sora and Kairi all look amongst each other with partly surprised, partly accusatory expressions, but Xion is the one to lay a hand over her abdomen with a heavy blush.

“I’m so sorry,” she squeaks, red up to her ears. “I had an early breakfast and haven’t eaten since.”

Sora has to bite his lips to keep himself from laughing at how cute she looks in her embarrassment, crossing eyes with Riku who appears to be having the same struggle. Kairi, bless her soul, is way more composed.

“Oh gosh, it’s almost one p.m. already,” she blinks, staring at her phone. “You should’ve told us you were getting hungry! We’ve been torturing you all this time!”

Xion shakes her head vigorously. “Oh, no, I was having fun! I didn’t want to interrupt that,” she wrings her hands.

“Well, we should all head down for lunch either way. Sora, Riku, you should come too.”

“Yeah, I’m just gonna change,” Riku says, hurrying to the bathroom. Sora watches him closely for any signs of a wobble, but the other keeps a steady gait the whole way.

Xion gathers Chirithy into her arms again while Kairi puts her shoes back on. Sora gets permission to pet Chirithy’s tiny, fuzzy head, cooing internally and missing his dream eaters more than ever. He’ll have to schedule a visit to the Sleeping Realm sometime. Ohh, maybe Riku and Kairi could come with, too!

Due to the late-ish hour, they find the kitchen nearly empty; only Naminé, Rikuto and Vanitas occupy one of the many tables, sitting close together and joking around as they eat.

Sora can’t help but be surprised at the scene for two reasons: the fact he’s just heard Vanitas let out something that might be considered a laugh for the first time; and how jarring it is to look at Rikuto more closely. Not that it isn’t jarring enough to look at Vanitas -- they have the same face, even if the other’s expression is usually twisted into a scowl -- but with Rikuto, Sora is unable to contain the urge to glance at his own Riku, just to make sure that his best friend hasn’t somehow gotten two years younger.

At this point, Sora doesn’t think he’d even be surprised if that were the case.

But then he looks within himself for the thread that connects him to Riku, gently tugging on it -- just an instinctual test to feel the answering pull from the other side -- and finds that telling them apart is much easier than he first thought.

This leads him to plop down on the trio’s table once he’s made his plate, getting a small smile from Naminé, an instant snarl from Vanitas, and a neutral expression from Rikuto.

“Heya!” Sora greets, undeterred.

“Good afternoon, Sora,” Naminé greets back.

“Who the fuck said you could sit here?” Vanitas snaps at the exact same time.

Rikuto’s greeting is simply a nod. Riku sits to Sora’s left and Kairi to his right; Xion tentatively sets her tray on the free spot next to Naminé.

“Afternoon, Naminé!” Sora smiles. “Sorry, must have missed the sign that said this seat was unavailable,” he tells Vanitas with the same smile, suddenly feeling scrappy. Riku hides his laugh with a cough.

Vanitas fumes, but is stopped from retaliating by Rikuto laying a hand on his arm and giving him a warning stare that Sora has received more times than he’s willing to admit.

“You’re having lunch late,” Naminé notes. “You missed everyone else.”

Sora scratches the back of his neck with a slightly bashful chuckle. “Yeah, we lost track of time.”

“Could’ve lost more of it,” Vanitas mutters. Rikuto huffs amusedly. The newcomers dig into their plates, completely ignoring Vanitas’ last remark.

At some point during the meal, Sora goes to the fridge to find some strawberry juice and ends up facing a sight so unexpected that he can’t help but gape. There is a cake sitting innocuously on the middle shelf -- one that transports Sora straight to his childhood, running with Riku and Kairi around the former’s living room as Mama Hoshi prepared the cake of the week.

He takes it out with careful hands, studying the star-shaped treat that, as far as he knows, is still the favorite of all three of them. Orange flavored, the shape traced with basic sugar frosting and decorated with meiloorun slices; it punches him in the gut with homesickness and lifts his spirits in one fell swoop.

“Did you get lost in there?” Kairi snarks, raising her voice a little.

“Guys,” he beams, turning around slowly. “Look what I found.”

His only guess is that the Tower had been listening when he thought about how he misses Mama Hoshi’s cakes; he _knew_ Kairi had looked through the fridge only minutes ago, so it must have been waiting for him in order to show itself.

Riku and Rikuto’s eyes widen.

“Is that Mom’s orange cake?” Riku breathes out in wonder. Rikuto blinks multiple times after hearing Riku speak, drawing into himself a little, but he can’t quite hide the touch of reverence in his eyes.

“With meiloorun slices?!” Kairi straightens her spine, a wide grin sprouting on her face.

“Yes!!” Sora laughs, setting the plate at the center of the table they’re occupying.

“How is this possible?” Riku asks.

“I don’t know! I thought about how much I missed Mama Hoshi’s cake just yesterday and bam, there it was!”

After a few more seconds, Kairi finally snaps out of her stupor, immediately reaching out to steal one of the meiloorun slices that cover the cake. Sora and Riku watch this action with fond exasperation, but Rikuto frowns, apparently confused.

Sora thinks about Rikuto’s reaction for a moment, eventually reaching the tentative conclusion that Kairi probably never existed in his memory. Riku and Mickey had explained to Sora some of the things that had happened in Castle Oblivion, so he’s aware that while Rikuto technically has the same memories as Riku, a lot of them were altered so as to have him be devoted to Naminé.

Thinking about this also makes Sora realize why the other has been so withdrawn when they’re around; Rikuto doesn’t really know Kairi, he probably still has the memories of an entire childhood and early adolescence around Sora, and well… him being awkward around Riku doesn’t need an explanation, really.

“We should all share it,” Sora suggests, smiling at Rikuto. “This is a good childhood memory for you too, right?”

Rikuto looks away. “Yeah. It is.”

Sora grins. “So let’s share it!”

An argument nearly breaks out as they cut the pieces, with Sora, Riku and Kairi accusing each other of taking a bigger slice than they should have. The others watch them banter with amusement -- except for Vanitas, that is, who simply frowns at the ruckus.

Sora insists on cutting him a slice as well, setting it in front of him with an indulgent smile.

“I think you’ll like it,” he says, pushing it forward ever so slightly.

“Not a fan of sweets,” Vanitas sneers, but there isn’t nearly as much heat behind it as usual as he uses his red eyes to study the treat carefully.

“You can just remove the frosting. The meiloorun has kind of a sour aftertaste -- it’s why Kairi loves it so much,” he explains.

With one last smile, Sora turns back to his own plate, laughing enthusiastically at Naminé’s and Xion’s reactions upon first tasting the treat. From the corner of his eyes, Sora sees Vanitas glance at Rikuto for support, but his usual partner in crime is too focused on his own slice to pay him any mind.

When everyone is distracted by the story Kairi is telling about the time she accidentally dropped a meiloorun and it exploded, making half her dress go from white to pinkish-red, Vanitas surreptitiously takes a bite of the cake. The rest of the piece follows shortly after.

Sora counts that as a win.

x

Sora, Riku, Xion, Naminé and Vanitas meet two hours later in what has been designated the art room; by that time, Vanitas’ scowl is back to full force.

Riku and Xion head a few paces away to practice with the guitars the Tower had provided, talking in low tones as Riku strums a few chords. Sora watches them as Naminé and Vanitas set their easels up; the sketchbook Naminé had lent him sits open, pencils spilling out from a small bag as he waits for her to start instructing him.

Riku’s dad, Hotaru, had been the one to teach him how to play; Sora doesn’t remember the man well, since he had passed from illness when Sora and Riku were still fairly young, but Mama Hoshi had told them many stories of him over the years -- especially the ones that featured him and Sora’s dad getting into trouble together.

Not for the first time, Sora thinks about how fate itself had set he and Riku up to be best friends, years before they were born: their mothers had met in middle school and become friends immediately, while their fathers had done something similar during high school; their mothers still joke about this from time to time, much to the boys’ amusement.

Kairi had been an unexpected addition, sudden as her arrival was, but she fit neatly in their little family. Hoshi and Aiko had been delighted to have a little girl around to buy pretty dresses for, while Kairi had been in sore need of positive attention in those first months after she washed up on the Islands -- so it worked out marvelously.

“Are you ready?” Naminé asks, pulling Sora out of his musings.

“Yeah! What should I do?”

Naminé smiles and guides him through basic tips for shaping and perception. Under her watchful eye, Sora draws his Meow Wow, Haru -- taking great joy in coloring it once the lines are done. He takes a moment to watch her and Vanitas paint once he’s finished, quietly entranced by how the colors they’re using blend in their canvases.

Next, he draws an asymmetrical guitar, a paopu fruit, and a very poor representation of one of the spiralling shells that were found in troves around the Play Island, snickering to himself because of how funky it looks.

A scoff makes Sora lift his head. “What the fuck is _that?_ ” Vanitas jeers, lip curled in distaste. “You call that art? Pathetic.”

Naminé turns to her friend, angrier than Sora has ever seen her. “Vanitas!” she chastises, tone firm. Vanitas gives her a surprised stare, then turns back to his easel with a huff.

“Ignore what he said,” Naminé tells Sora. “It doesn’t matter if it looks good or not, as long as you’re having fun creating it,” she settles down with a smile. Sora nods his agreement, not particularly bothered by Vanitas’ words, but touched by her defense of his scribbles nevertheless.

It takes him a moment to realize that the room has gone silent: he peeks to where Riku and Xion had sat just in time to catch them putting down their guitars. Xion’s gaze crosses his and she gives him a little smile and a wave before silently making her way out of the room. Riku, meanwhile, stands and walks to the table Sora is occupying, wordlessly sitting in the chair next to his.

“Is that Haru?” he asks, pointing at the Meow Wow Sora had drawn.

“Yeah,” Sora smiles. “I miss it.”

Riku gives him a half-smile. “Me too.”

Sora relays the tips Naminé had given him to Riku as well, watching with great interest as his best friend draws a yellow ball of fuzz next to his Meow Wow.

“Oh!” Sora exclaims once Riku gives the fuzz little wings. “Are you drawing Natsu?”

“Can’t leave Haru all alone in here,” Riku remarks with a little smirk, finishing up his Komory Bat. Sora chuckles.

His mind churns along as they doodle various objects and pretty shells from the Destiny Islands in companionable silence, filling up an entire page and moving to the next one.

Sora thinks back to the conversation they had with Xion and Kairi hours earlier. He wishes he had a solid idea of what he wants for himself in the future like Xion seems to, but all he has is a couple of loose statements that point to no specific place, or path.

For starters, he knows he wants to keep travelling the worlds. Back at the Islands, Riku had been the one with the strongest desire to leave, to _explore_ , and Sora had shared in that wish, of course -- but never quite to the same burning extent. Kairi, meanwhile, had gone along with their crazy ideas out of a desire to find out where she came from.

Now, after many adventures and dozens of worlds visited, Sora thinks he finally understands how Riku had felt while they built the raft back then. There is so much to see out here in the great, wide universe -- so much wonder, so much beauty! Sora has seen worlds that he would have never imagined and made friends with amazing people that led lives so much more varied than he’d ever considered before, most of which wouldn’t have been out of place in a fairy tales book.

The thought of leaving all of that behind for a quiet life on the Islands has his stomach doing unhappy flips. Sora has never known what to do with his life -- whenever the other kids at school started talking about what they’d do after graduating, he would just go silent -- but now, he knows what he does _not_ want to do.

“Hey Naminé,” Sora starts, setting down the pencil he’d been using. “Do you know what you want to do with your future?” he asks, not paying any mind to the glance Riku gives him.

Naminé’s grip on her brush tightens and the smile she tries to give Sora is strained. Sora immediately regrets asking.

“No,” she replies, forcing herself to put the brush away. “To be honest, I never thought I’d _have_ a future to worry about.”

Sora readies a quick apology and a steer into a safer topic, but Vanitas beats him to the punch, turning around in his stool with his red eyes blazing in anger.

“What gives you the fucking right to ask that?” Vanitas snarls, standing up to tower over them. “You think yourselves so high and mighty, so _generous_ , for giving us new bodies and the chance of a peaceful future. Well, guess what: I never wanted this fucking shit!!”

Naminé stands up as well. “Vanitas--”

“You force us to come back without ever asking us about it, without even _considering_ what it’d mean for us, and then you tell us to find something to do for the rest of our lives!?” he shouts, completely ignoring Naminé. “What a load of bullshit! Am I supposed to be _grateful_ that a bunch of snivelling dumbasses decided I was worthy of a second chance? Because _I am not!_ ” he throws his brush onto the floor, splattering red paint everywhere. “You think you _saved_ us!? I’m here to tell you you didn’t save shit!” he huffs hard in his anger. “You forced me back into this stupid world, and I’m gonna make sure you regret that for the rest of your lives.”

Having successfully given them a piece of his mind, Vanitas storms out of the room; Sora hears him letting out a litany of insults under his breath until he leaves their hearing range.

Naminé sighs. “I’m sorry. He’s doing his best to keep his emotions in check, but it’s not always easy,” she smiles sadly. Sora shakes his head.

“No, you don’t need to apologize,” he says, tracing a few doodles with his eyes. “It’s a difficult situation.”

“Still,” Naminé bites her lip. “He had no reason to take that out on you; you weren’t around when he was brought back.”

“But if I had been, I would have insisted on giving him a second chance too,” Sora shrugs. Riku puts a comforting hand on his upper back. “It’s okay -- I’m not hurt or anything. He has every right to feel that way.”

Naminé nods, glancing at Vanitas’ unfinished painting. “I’m sorry, but I think it’d be best for me to put everything away now,” she says, moving to collect the brush Vanitas left behind. “We can meet again tomorrow, if you want more tips,” she suggests.

“Sure,” Sora grins. “Thanks for today, Naminé!”

Riku snorts at his side; Sora bats him away.

“Maybe you can make an artist out of this porcupine yet,” Riku tells Naminé, throwing a playful arm over Sora’s shoulders.

“Maybe,” Naminé laughs, mood lifted by a small amount. “It’s not easy, but it can be fun.”

“I love fun,” Sora says. Riku laughs.

“No surprise there.”

They tidy up the table, putting all the pencils into their bag, but Naminé refuses to take it back.

“I set these aside for you,” she says, pushing them towards Sora. “I have lots of them already -- you can keep these.”

Sora thanks her with a grin and leaves her to finish dealing with the canvases at her behest. He and Riku spend some time on the steps to the Tower, watching Rikuto and Xion spar to the cheers of Roxas, Lea, Ventus and Kairi.

After a few rounds, Sora notices Riku nodding off at his side. The sight of him leaning forward with his eyes closed before righting himself with a snap would be funnier if it wasn’t worrying; as it stands, Sora herds him back upstairs for a nap, pausing outside their door at the last second to place the request for more bean bags and a mini-fridge as they had planned that morning and giving the new items an appreciative glance after they go through the door.

He takes the sketchbook back out after Riku falls asleep, absentmindedly studying the pencils he’s been so generously given. He considers sketching his best friend for a full minute before discarding the idea, feeling that with how his skills are, he wouldn’t be able to do Riku justice. He settles for drawing a few more dream eaters instead, making full use of the colors Naminé had provided him with.

The silence of the room feels a bit disquieting after travelling with Donald and Goofy for so long -- almost _lonely_ , even. But at the same time, a part of him rejoices in it; in the opportunity to simply exist next to a friend, without feeling the need to fill the space between them with words. Sora realizes he’s forgotten how nice those moments are, resolving himself to give them the appreciation they’re due in the future.

With a determined nod and a satisfied smile, Sora keeps on drawing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My beta told me that I'm gonna be known as the author that makes her otps sleep in the same bed before they even realize they're in love, and honestly? i'm all for that. I love casual affection, I love friends that aren't ashamed of being intimate, I love healthy friendships.  
> This chapter, for me, is like the existential crisis chapter — the kick off point of the "ok, what now?" question that I plan on playing around with. I've also been calling it the Xion & Vanitas chapter, since they've been very present in it; by the same token, chapter 1 is partially the Naminé chapter, while chapter 2 is just plain Sora & Riku lmao.  
> Chapter 4 is gonna be the Destiny Trio's as a whole ;^)  
> This chapter also gave me a fair amount of trouble at the beginning (so much dialogue, oh my GOD) but luckily I managed to pull through and not make it TOO long. My poor beta.... She's the real mvp here, y'all.  
> Stay tuned for some Revelations™️ on the next chapter >;3c


	5. Chapter 4

Riku feels as if two days pass in the blink of an eye; he can’t consider himself a good judge of the passage of time, however, seeing as he had spent over half of said two days basically dead to the world.

After four days of living with this weird issue, Riku can very safely say that he hates it with his whole being. He’ll sleep for twelve, sometimes thirteen hours at night and _still_ wake up tired -- only to be forced to nap for _another_ couple hours before dinner, lest his body decides to pass out without consulting him first.

It’s frustrating enough to make him want to rip out the hair from his head just to see if the pain can keep him awake. The smallest, most innocuous things leave him exhausted in a matter of _minutes_ ; anything that involves physical exertion is pretty much immediately taken off the table if he’s going to be around.

Riku knows that this situation is taking a heavy toll on Sora as well, no matter how hard the other tries to hide it. Sora’s automatic response to quiet, sluggish days has always been to either nap the day away or spend hours in front of any of his many game consoles, but the Tower doesn’t do well with creating electronics and even _Sora_ can get bored of napping, eventually.

This imposed downtime is made even harder to stomach by seeing how much _fun_ everyone else is having together while Sora has to sit out of everything. Riku is aware that Sora has been waiting excitedly for the opportunity to truly meet and befriend the people they’ve worked so hard to save; yet, now that they’re all in the same place without any universe-level threat to deal with, Riku’s issue forces him to stay put in a tiny little bedroom, away from everyone else.

It’s been impossible to keep himself from getting lost in spirals of negative thoughts regarding this whole thing, to be completely honest. Riku will see Sora reject an invitation to play board games with some of the others and his mind will start listing all the reasons why he himself is selfish, a burden, useless, weak-- on and on and _on_ , an ever-tightening vortex that only makes him feel worse.

Then, Sora will notice he’s been quiet for too long and bring him back with a hand on his arm or between his shoulder blades, frowning in obvious concern; asking him if he’s feeling okay, if he wants to go back to their room -- Riku kind of wants to set himself on fire just so all of this can _end_ already.

It doesn’t help that Donald and Goofy -- two of the ones that had distracted Sora from Riku the most -- had to go back to Disney Castle with Mickey in the previous afternoon. They had apologized profusely for not being able to stick around to help solve the mystery, but the trio had already spent too long away from their court duties in the past few years to postpone their return any longer. Donald had threatened Sora with _severe_ bodily harm if he failed to keep them updated while Mickey had simply expressed his concern over Riku’s situation and conveyed his wish for him to make a speedy recovery; Goofy had promised Sora the boy could reach out to them at literally any time of the day.

This morning, Riku had woken up with Sora all wrapped up around him like an octopus, snoring away without a care in the world. It wasn’t the first time such a thing happened; Riku had suspected it in the very first day after finding Sora sitting on his bed, but it took them having a nap together for Riku to actually _see_ Sora curled up around him, since the other usually woke up first these days.

It should make him blush to have the person he loves doing that -- insist on sharing a bed with him, that is -- but it doesn’t, not really. Riku has known Sora for far too long to have his feathers ruffled by something he knows to be simply an effect of his friend’s affectionate nature. Riku suspects there’s something else driving Sora to sneak into his bed -- or to stand so close and be so quick to check if he’s okay -- but that’s more easily attributed to fear than the outlandish idea that Sora might reciprocate his feelings.

Most of all, though, he just wants to get _better_. The entire situation is frustrating and disheartening, sure, but the absolute worst part of it is the lack of any signs of improvement. He just keeps on _sleeping_ , and even though he’s resting -- thus supposedly giving his body all the time it needs to heal -- nothing changes. Riku wants to be able to tell Sora and the others that he’s making progress in _something_ , but at this point he’s too tired to even attempt to entertain the thought of maintaining such a lie.

But for all that he lacks the energy to do anything more strenuous than _exist_ , Riku still has enough stubbornness to power a small star: he drags himself to drawing sessions with Naminé, steps out of the Tower to watch the others train, and powers through teaching Xion the little he knows about playing the guitar.

When night finally comes to put him out of his misery, he puts his rotting carcass to bed, already preparing himself to do it again the next day -- firmly believing that that’s the least he can do in exchange for keeping Sora cooped up in their room for most of the day.

What all of this means is that when Roxas asks Sora if he’d like to spar, Riku convinces his initially hesitant best friend to accept the invitation. The question of how to make it happen without the risk of Sora getting out of range is solved by Aqua and her barriers; she creates a small dome out on the grass, reasoning that it would spice things up to have a limited fighting area.

They’ve been slowly breaking out the news of Riku’s predicament to the others, putting a lot of emphasis on how they’ve already talked to the Master and have a game plan to stave off any outbursts of worry. After four days and counting of no developments, Riku is starting to resign himself to the fact he and Sora are going to be paying a visit to Radiant Garden’s lab sooner rather than later. Unsurprisingly, the idea is not a pleasant one; Riku is not looking forward to being poked and gawked at, even if the team has been quite helpful and respectful in the past four months or so.

Riku sits gingerly on the bench next to Aqua’s barrier, doing his best to keep his sagging shoulders from broadcasting his exhaustion to everyone around -- especially since Ventus, Terra and Xion have come out to watch the spar as well. Roxas and Sora exchange playful taunts as they warm up, slowly getting a feel of one another. Terra drops onto the bench next to Riku with a smile.

“Hello there,” Terra greets him, crossing his legs under him at the ankle.

Riku bows his head slightly in respect. “Hi.”

“How are you feeling?”

Riku shrugs dismissively. “As well as possible, I guess.”

Terra’s smile turns rueful. “Being forced out of commission sucks, huh?”

“Sure does,” Riku sighs, flexing his right hand absentmindedly.

“You have all this restless energy flowing but nowhere to direct it to,” Terra hums with a nod of understanding, looking up at the starry sky. Riku rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands until his vision is full of bright spots.

“Yeah.”

“I know that you probably don’t want to commit to anything else at the moment, but I could teach you how to carve wood when you feel better,” Terra offers, smiling again. “It’s a very grounding experience to me, you know -- the world seems to narrow down to just me, the tools and the block I’m working on.”

Riku imagines slowly chipping away the wood to create something that had previously existed only inside his mind; imagines focusing on the actions so that the edges come out perfect, or the fine control needed to not ruin a piece.

“I think I’d like that,” Riku exhales, feeling a little bit of hope blink into existence in his chest.

They have the _time_ to learn those things now; to discover new hobbies and interests at their own pace. This realization makes him finally understand Sora’s cheerful drive to learn how to draw, or Xion’s dedication to the guitar.

The future will be better than the past. They’ll make it so.

“That’s good,” Terra laughs. “I have a feeling you’ll like it.”

“Me too,” Riku smiles.

He looks in the direction of the barrier again, taking note of how Sora and Roxas have begun to cautiously circle one another. His brain supplies him with the grim thought that Sora is only looking for those new hobbies because he’s _stuck_ with boring old Riku -- completely disregarding all evidence to the contrary. Riku drops his head into his hands with a soul-deep sigh.

Terra puts a soothing hand on his shoulder, drawing Riku’s gaze.

“It’ll get better,” Terra says resolutely, leaving no space for doubt. “If the scientists aren’t able to give you the answers, we’ll find them together,” he nods.

Riku gives him a half smile. “Thank you,” he says sincerely, remembering their meeting twelve years ago all of a sudden. Riku lets the memory wash over him, silently appreciating the effect that their singular, brief encounter had in him.

The sound of clashing keyblades pulls their attention to the barrier again, where the boys have started the mock battle at last. It’s interesting to see how Sora fares against a dual wielding opponent -- though Riku knows that Sora also has the ability to use two keyblades at once, occasionally.

It all goes well in for the first two minutes; they trade blows, feints and dodges to get a feel of each other’s fighting style. A few spells are thrown here and there -- mostly by Sora -- but they dissipate upon coming into contact with the barrier, keeping all of the onlookers safe from a stray Fira or Blizzara.

Then, Sora overcompensates for the recoil of a Watera and ends up falling on all fours on the soft grass. That wouldn’t be all that surprising -- mistakes happen, and it’s best for them to occur in a friendly match like this one -- but when Sora fails to stand up to continue the fight, the warning bells start to go off in Riku’s head.

He isn’t the only one to get alarmed, either; everyone gathers worriedly around the dissipating barrier to catch the trail end of Sora’s apologies to Roxas.

“I’m fine!” Sora hurriedly tells all of them, panting slightly and rubbing at his chest. “I probably just overextended myself or something -- must have been the months without training!” he says, clearly shaping his mouth into his usual grin by sheer force of will.

“You shouldn’t have accepted the match if you weren’t feeling well,” Roxas frowns, shifting his grip on his keyblades for a moment before sending them away.

“I know, I’m sorry,” Sora laughs embarrassedly, scratching the back of his head. “Didn’t think it’d be this bad.”

“I can spar with you if you still want to, Roxas!” Ventus offers, grinning playfully as he falls into a battle stance. Roxas smirks.

“Get ready to lose, then!”

Riku helps Sora to the bench he’d been on while Aqua sets up a new, bigger barrier for Roxas and Ventus. Sora smiles gratefully at him; Riku can’t pinpoint why, but he gets the impression that contrary to what Sora had implied, his best friend had been caught entirely unaware by that little stunt.

“Were you really feeling off before the match started?” Riku asks in a low tone, so as to not get the attention of the others.

Sora takes a minute to respond, still massaging his chest distractedly. “Not really,” he admits, curling in on himself a bit and leaning closer to Riku. “Maybe it’s an effect of what’s happening and we just didn’t realize it earlier? Kairi said my heart is missing a few pieces… maybe that’s why,” he exhales slowly.

“Maybe,” Riku nods.

Sora turns to him. “I’m truly fine, though. It made me feel tired all of a sudden, but there’s no pain or anything,” he says. Riku studies his expression carefully, looking for any sign that tells him that Sora is not being entirely honest.

“Okay,” he accepts after a handful of seconds, having successfully convinced himself of Sora’s sincerity. Sora grins in response.

“It’s getting close to the usual naptime, isn’t it?” he asks, fishing through Riku’s pockets to find his gummiphone, which Riku had been keeping safe during the fight. “I think I’m gonna nap with you today, I’m beat.”

The mention of the hours they’ve set aside for Riku to recover some energy before dinnertime brings his awareness back to the exhaustion weighting down on his shoulders -- something that had been briefly forgotten in his worry over Sora.

“Yeah,” Riku says matter-of-factly, fighting to keep himself upright.

The match between Roxas and Ventus ends with Roxas emerging victorious after a particularly well-timed combo. Sora helps Riku to his feet and then up the many stairs, laughing at the quiet huff Riku lets out upon being unceremoniously thrown onto bed. He divests the two of them of their shoes before molding himself to Riku’s side and pulling the blanket over them both.

Riku is asleep before Sora even finishes making himself comfortable.

x

Sora comes to awareness slowly, gradually, as he drifts ever down in the midst of a great darkness.

He tests each of his limbs before flipping his body, shifting from a passive backwards fall into a _dive_. Sora had gotten the idea to perform one from collecting many different clues: Kairi’s observations of his heart, Master Yen Sid’s request to keep a close eye on the link he shared with Riku, Chirithy’s comment about the edges of sleep and death, and so on. The last piece needed to turn his jumbled thoughts into a plan he could enact had been the sudden exhaustion after sparring with Roxas, as well as the realization of how the heart was truly the source of all their special abilities.

If his heart is the thing that gives Sora his powers and said powers are misbehaving, then it stands to reason that there must be something wrong with his heart -- something that most certainly defies simplicity.

So with all of that in mind, Sora had been determined to dive into his own heart as he napped alongside Riku, to do a check-up of sorts. He hadn’t been sure it would work -- he had no idea of how to trigger one on purpose -- but everything seems to have gone well, if the circle of light he keeps on growing closer to is any indication.

It’s a bright, indistinct white light at first, projecting it’s glow upwards to meet him; as he dives further down, however, the white resolves into soft blues, with splashes of red and yellow. An unknown amount of time later, the colors arrange themselves into images; Sora recognizes a figure of himself sleeping to the side, loosely clutching the Kingdom Key in his left hand.

But the image isn’t perfect. There are cracks running over most of the station, with some parts missing entirely: a visual representation of the damage that has been wrought to his heart. It looks so fragile that Sora is reluctant to land, fearing that the slight impact might make it shatter, but that fear thankfully doesn't become a reality.

He walks around the station for a good moment before consciously realizing that something is not quite right. Closer inspection has him noticing that there are patches of a darker blue in places that Sora feels should have _sky_ blue, while a wider examination of the station as a whole tells him that this foreign dark blue makes up a good fraction of the fragmented heart Sora possesses, fitting almost seamlessly into the gaps in the lighter blue.

This continues to puzzle Sora until he comes across a dark blue patch off to the left that contains the image of a hand that is not his -- an image disconnected in every way from the sky blue surrounding it: a hand clad in a glove that is very familiar to Sora.

 _Riku’s_ hand.

Sora stands there for a good while, body numb and mind racing to make sense of what he’s seeing; to tease apart the implications of it. Acting without truly thinking, he lowers himself into a crouch, reaching out to the dark blue tentatively, not knowing what to expect.

When his fingers make contact with the glass, it pulses slightly before starting to emit a faint glow that has Sora gasping in wonder. The warmth it gives off is a little disconcerting, but Sora doesn’t let it faze him; somehow, the discovery that hearts are _warm_ isn’t all that surprising to him.

Closing his eyes, he focuses the full scope of his awareness into this one piece, finding that it connects to the thread that represents his link with Riku. It weaves in and out of the link, all the way back to his best friend -- and so do all the other disjointed pieces he’s seen in his station.

He clenches his hands into fists as this new puzzle piece joins the others and rearranges the whole picture inside his mind: if these are truly pieces of Riku’s heart -- and they _must_ be -- then this entire situation they’re into suddenly makes sense. If Sora goes too far from him and the link stretches thin, then the absence of those pieces must make itself felt, thus leading to all the symptoms Riku described. As for why Riku’s heart still _appears_ to be complete, Sora figures the link must be responsible for that as well.

Anger bubbles up in his chest. Sora sits on the station and presses the heels of his hands to his eyes, trying to contain the urge to go scream at Riku for sacrificing himself _again_. They’ve never even _heard_ of anything like this, so Riku must have done it without any idea of what could happen; all things considered, they’re _lucky_ that it only resulted in exhaustion and a need to stay in physical proximity to each other.

But how can they _fix_ this?

Sora focuses on the nearby fragment again, willing it to _change_ , to go back, _anything_. Nothing happens.

Frustrated, he walks around some more, sidestepping the cracks and frowning at the dark blue patches. When he tries again at another point, silently begging for something to occur -- he wants Riku to get _better_ , damn it! -- it responds to his pleas by quietly, hesitantly lightening in color until it matches the surrounding images once more, as Sora holds his breath in hope and wonder.

He grins in euphoria once the process is finished, not even bothering to stop himself from jumping around in joy. Sora wonders if the piece would go back to Riku, but deep down he knows that’s unlikely. It would be _far_ too easy, and Sora knows better by now than to expect the universe to let them have easy things.

Sora tunes into his link with Riku upon feeling something odd and is almost physically tugged forward by it, taking a stumbling step to keep himself from falling. He closes his eyes in response to the sensation, letting the link lead him to wherever it wants him to go, feeling an airless wind brush against his skin until the pulling stops.

When Sora opens his eyes, he finds himself standing on Riku’s heart station. His stomach drops to his feet upon noticing the jagged holes that litter its cracked surface, his previous anger turning to anguish at what his best friend has done to himself.

Much like the pieces back in Sora’s own station had done, Riku’s heart responds to him by glowing a comforting blue, pulsing like an actual heartbeat while Sora walks around to inspect the damage.

He ends up near the spot he’d healed in his own heart by accident. Sora almost jumps away when the area starts to glow very brightly with no apparent cause other than his proximity; it takes a few seconds for him to realize that the gap is _slowly_ being closed up -- nearly painstakingly so, in fact. Sora touches the glass reverently once it’s whole again, looking out at the remaining damage.

 _We’ll fix this_ , he thinks, clenching his hand into a determined fist.

They have to.

x

Kairi wipes the sweat off of her face with a long sigh, letting the towel fall to the bench once she’s done.

Axel and Isa’s spar is still going strong behind her, but she doesn’t pay much attention to it; the two of them had returned from their brief visit to Radiant Garden just an hour earlier, right on time for dinner, and decided it was a great idea to train vigorously after stuffing themselves with food.

Not that Kairi is complaining, of course -- working out before bed usually guarantees her a solid night of good sleep, and she’s always up to getting stronger. Her own spar against Xion had been interesting, giving her lots of things to think about and many ideas on how to improve.

She sits down to watch the adults fight, tuning out Roxas’ and Xion’s cheers as Isa catches Axel -- who is fighting with his keyblade, not his chakrams -- slightly off guard, emerging victorious not much later to the catcalls of the others.

Kairi then zones out for a moment, allowing her thoughts come and go as they please. Her little trance is broken by Axel leaning close to use her head as an armrest, prompting her to bat him off with a protest.

“You’re looking pretty out of it, Princess,” he remarks, raising his eyebrows. “Everything okay?”

Kairi sighs again. “Just worried.”

“About our resident self sacrificial geniuses?” Axel smirks. She laughs despite herself.

“Who else?”

“What did they do this time?” he asks, settling on the bench as if preparing to hear a long story.

She shrugs. “They usually wake up from their nap in time for dinner, but they haven’t showed up yet,” she says, turning her gummi phone around in her hands. “I asked Naminé about it, since she usually eats around this hour, but she hasn’t seen them either. I just… I have a bad feeling,” she frowns, her skin breaking out in goosebumps.

“You should listen to it,” Isa says, surprising her with his presence. He stares down at her patiently. “You are the one that knows them best. If their absence feels strange to you, you should investigate.”

Kairi hugs herself. “But what if I’m just overthinking it? This whole thing is weird enough as it is. I don’t want to seem overbearing.”

“I doubt they’d ever call you overbearing,” Axel says, waving a hand dismissively. “Aren’t you their best friend too? They’ll get it.”

Kairi hesitates.

“Go to them,” Isa encourages her. “It’s best to be cautious than the alternative.”

“We’ll take your stuff up to your room once we’re done,” Axel adds.

Having been successfully convinced, Kairi nods and takes off in a sprint, stomach churning uncomfortably with a feeling she cannot name. Her legs burn but she ignores it, running up the stairs two steps at a time.

She takes a moment to breathe and knock on their door once she gets to it, listening attentively for any sounds coming from the other side. But once a minute passes and there’s still no response, she lets herself in, hairs standing on end due to the goosebumps that keep going through her body.

Kairi breathes out in relief upon seeing them in bed, but something about all this continues to bug her, keeping her from fully relaxing. It’s only when she examines them more closely that she realizes they’re too _still_ ; then, panic grips her by the throat as she runs to their side.

She almost starts crying when she discovers that their pulse is worryingly slow and their breaths, shallow. Shaking them has no effect; yelling out their names does nothing as well. A Curaga seems to help, but only slightly, so she reaches for her phone with hands numbed by dread, fighting to keep the tears from blurring her vision.

Kairi starts speaking as soon as the call connects. “Aqua, there’s something wrong with Sora and Riku, their hearts are beating too slow and nothing I do wakes them up,” she blurts out in a hurry, continuing to shake Riku’s shoulder in the meantime. “I felt something was wrong and came to check on them because they should have gone downstairs by now and they won’t wake up!”

Aqua starts running, if the sounds from her side of the call are any indication. “I’m on my way up,” she says, her voice tight. “I want you to try and take a deep breath for me, okay? We’ll be there soon and we’ll help them, I promise.”

Kairi’s attempted deep breath turns into a sob halfway through, the tears that were gathering in her eyes finally spilling. It’s too soon, it hits too close-- they’ve _only just_ came back and now it feels like Sora has disappeared all over again, like waking up to find Riku nowhere to be seen and she _hates_ it, hates that this keep happening, hates that they can’t catch a goddamn _break_.

Aqua gets there in record time with Terra and Ventus in tow, making a beeline to Kairi’s boys to check on their pulse and breathing as well. Kairi watches as she summons her keyblade and brings the handle close to her chest, gathering her magic into a focal point before she lets out a huge Curaja that has Kairi’s pain melting away and Sora gasping awake.

Sora looks around, disoriented, while Aqua checks on Riku again -- confirming that his vitals are back to normal, even if he remains asleep. Kairi cries harder in relief as Aqua stumbles a little, being promptly helped to Sora’s bed by Terra and Ventus.

“What’s going on?” Sora asks, voice slurred, blinking slowly. He freezes upon looking at Kairi. “Why are you crying?” he says, sitting up properly. “What’s wrong?”

“I have no idea what’s going on!!” Kairi shouts, tipping over her breaking point. “I come here because I feel that there’s something wrong since you guys haven’t shown up yet and I find you half dead! What am I supposed to do?!”

“Half dead??” Sora frowns, turning to make sure Riku’s alright.

“You were barely breathing,” Aqua replies, sounding a bit strained from the spell.

“The two of you scared all of us,” Terra says -- the ‘ _again_ ’ being left unsaid.

“What?! But-- that doesn’t make any sense!”

Aqua takes a deep breath. “Why don’t you tell us what happened?”

“Something _did_ happen, right?” Ventus fidgets. “It wasn’t just some random thing?”

“Yeah, I-- I had an idea after what happened this afternoon when I fought Roxas, you know, ‘cause if my heart is incomplete too, then maybe taking a better look at it could give us some clues, right? And we were all thinking about going to Radiant Garden and stuff, but then I remembered something and figured that I could dive into my own heart to see how it was doing!”

“Slow down,” Aqua tells him. Sora forces himself to take a couple of deep breaths. “What do you mean by diving into your heart?”

Sora’s right foot starts to bounce from side to side. “There’s this, like, huge stained glass kinda thing that I’ve visited some times, right? And I’ve kinda figured it out that it’s a way to represent a heart visually, so if my heart was damaged, it had to show in the one for mine,” he explains. Kairi doesn’t understand a word of it.

“Stained glass?” she asks in confused exasperation, brushing her remaining tears away.

Sora bites his lip. “Yeah, it’s-- circular and colorful, has a figure of the person on the center or off to the side…” he trails off, uncertain.

“I know what you mean,” Ventus pipes up, drawing the eyes of everyone else.

“You do!?” Sora grins.

“Yeah, it’s…” he glances at Terra and Aqua. “It’s where I fought Vanitas, way back then.”

Even Sora’s frantic energy quiets down in the wake of that admission; of the reminder of the things they’ve gone through to get to the present. Terra pulls Ventus into a one armed hug, rubbing comforting circles onto his back. Aqua reaches out to hold one of Ventus’ hands.

“So you visited your own heart, somehow,” she says, giving Sora her full attention. “What did you find?”

“It was all… cracked and stuff. Pieces missing,” Sora curls in on himself, shooting Kairi a look to gauge her reaction.

He is stopped from continuing by sudden movement from Riku; a few seconds later, Kairi has aqua eyes blinking in confusion in her direction.

“What happened? Did we miss dinner?” Riku asks, noticing Aqua, Terra and Ventus on the other side of the room.

“Something like that,” Ventus replies, smiling ruefully.

Riku sits up gingerly, frowning in concern at Kairi. “You were crying,” he states, sounding regretful. “We worried you again, I’m sorry.”

Kairi’s lower lip begins to wobble at the sincerity in his tone, but she refuses to cry again. “We’re still trying to figure out what happened,” she says, swallowing the knot on her throat.

Sora recounts what he’s told the others so far; Riku nods in understanding once he’s done.

“I know what you mean,” Riku says. “I saw yours during our Mark of Mastery exam.”

“Right!” Sora exclaims, glad to have someone else that gets what he’s talking about.

Riku scoots away from Sora a little and pats the space between them -- a clear invitation directed at Kairi. She does not hesitate to take it, letting Riku hold her to his side as Sora presses close to them at her left.

“While I was there, I noticed something weird,” Sora says, following up with his story now that everyone has caught up. “There were a lot of pieces around that looked like they shouldn’t be there, that didn’t fit with the rest of the image,” he frowns.

“How so?” Aqua inquires.

“They were a different color,” Sora explains, looking at her with his endlessly blue eyes. “Then I looked around some more and… they were Riku’s.”

Kairi sits up from where she had been leaning on Riku. “What do you mean?”

“They are parts of Riku’s heart,” Sora repeats. “I recognized them ‘cause I’ve seen his heart before. So I followed our dream eater link to his side and found it all cracked too, with lots of pieces missing exactly where I had seen them on my heart.”

Kairi looks at Riku, but he shows no reaction -- only continues to stare at the blanket still covering his legs.

“So…” Terra stars, hesitant. “You’re saying that Riku literally gave you pieces of his heart.”

Sora nods.

“But if that’s true, then why does it still look complete when Kairi and Naminé examine it?” Ventus asks, scratching his cheek.

“The dream eater link,” Riku replies before Sora has the chance to do so.

“The link allows you to still have access to the pieces,” Kairi elaborates, brushing against the same epiphany her two best friends must have come across. “But it gets weaker with distance, so when Sora moves away, Riku’s connection to the pieces is severed.”

“It’s like his heart is being torn apart all over again,” Aqua completes, catching on.

“Exactly,” Sora nods.

“That doesn’t explain why you almost died,” Kairi frowns, hugging her knees to protect herself from the word.

“Could they have gone too deep inside their hearts?” Terra suggests.

“No, I…” Sora bites his lip. “I wanted to find a way to make things better, to fix it, and I managed to make… one of Riku’s pieces become mine, I think?” he winces. “The same piece reappeared in Riku’s heart later.”

“It returned to Riku?” Kairi inquires, confused.

“I don’t think it did,” Aqua shakes her head. “It’s more likely that Sora used it as a base to rebuild his own, and then Riku had to make the missing piece from scratch.”

“So it drained our already low energies even more,” Riku muses.

“Yes,” Aqua says. “That would make the most sense, I think.”

“I didn’t feel any of this,” Riku confesses, rubbing his chest.

“Maybe it’s ‘cause I was the only one making the dive?” Sora shrugs.

“Maybe.”

Kairi squeezes her legs closer to her chest. “Never do something like this again,” she tells them, working hard to contain the outburst that is begging to be released.

Sora hesitates to reach for her. “Kairi?” he asks in a soft voice; Kairi realizes she’s shaking.

“ _I said never do this again!!_ ” she shouts, hiding her face inside her knees. “How many times are you going to sacrifice yourselves before you realize it doesn’t solve anything!?” she sobs, curling into an ever tighter ball.

“Kairi--” Sora starts. Kairi shrugs off the hand he lays on her shoulder.

“I’m always being left behind!” she continues, lifting her head from the protective cage of her arms. “The two of you keep going off on your own, with no warning, no plans -- how is that supposed to make me feel!? What am I supposed to do when the time comes that there’s nothing left of you to save!?”

Kairi sobs and hiccups, not even bothering to brush away the tears that refuse to stop coming; this pain has been festering inside her chest for far too long to be so easily put aside.

“You’re my best friends,” she cries, hugging herself desperately. “My- my _family!_ I’m so tired of always wondering if you’ll come home in one piece, if you’re really as okay as you claim; of always being on the lookout for the two of you!”

“Kairi, I-I’m so sorry…” Sora stutters, his voice almost a whisper.

“‘Sorry’ isn’t enough!!” Kairi yells. “I’ve heard enough apologies for a lifetime! What use are they if you don’t change!? If you’ll keep on going somewhere I can’t follow!?”

Usually, Kairi would feel guilty for taking it out on Riku as well when it appears that only Sora was responsible for the latest mishap, but she knows that this outburst has been in the making for _years_ ; she’s well aware that Riku has done his fair share of this self-sacrificial bullshit too.

“We’re all here,” she sniffs, finally meeting their eyes. “Isn’t this the reason why we worked so hard to find everyone? So that we could work together and _share the load_? Why- why did you do that if you’re just going to... run off on your own again?”

Riku gathers her into a hug so warm and full of comfort -- so _familiar_ \-- that it brings fresh tears to her eyes. He’s grown so big that she fits under his chin with space to spare; space which is quickly filled by Sora, surrounding her with warmth and love.

“Promise me you’ll never do something like this again,” she pleads, holding bunches of Riku’s shirt in her fists. “ _Promise me_.”

For a heart-stopping moment of silence, she thinks they won’t be able to do it; wonders how long it would take for one or both of them to die, _permanently_ , leaving her without half her family. Wonders how it’d be like to go back to the Islands and have to tell Mama Aiko and Mama Hoshi that their boys are gone, that they’re never coming back.

But then, Riku speaks.

“I promise,” he whispers into her red hair. “I can’t say it’s gonna be easy, or that you won’t need to give us a good kick in the shin every once in a while, but I promise,” he says, resolute, tightening his hold on her. “...I don’t want to do this anymore, either,” he confesses, almost as if ashamed.

“Me neither,” Sora says. “I don’t want to worry about losing my friends anymore… I just want to be with you guys. I promise too, Kairi.”

Kairi allows herself to cry some more, protected from the rest of the world by the two boys she’s known for over two thirds of her life, with whom she spent nearly every single day for an entire decade. Aqua, Terra and Ventus remain respectfully silent on the other side of the room.

Eventually, she wipes her tear tracks away, taking those huge shuddering breaths that always happen when you’ve had a good, long cry. Her boys draw back slightly, but continue to hold her hand or rub comforting circles into her back, reassuring her of their continued presence.

Kairi sniffles. “Okay,” she says, shooting Terra, Aqua and Ventus a grateful look. “What do we do now, then?”

Aqua stands up gingerly. “We should visit Master Yen Sid again,” she says, accepting the hand Terra lays on her back to steady her. “But not right away, I think; it’s late, and I believe we should all get some rest.”

“But we have more information about what’s happening now, so there’s that,” Terra nods with a small smile.

“Yeah,” Sora grins. “We just have to figure out the details of how to do it!”

“Yeah!” Ventus cheers.

Kairi gets ready to stand up, moving to the edge of the bed.

“You could sleep in here if you wanted,” Sora offers, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. Kairi smiles fondly, still sniffling a little.

“That’s really sweet, but I think I want the comfort of my own room tonight,” she tells them, tucking a lock of red hair behind her ear.

“Alright,” Riku says.

“Do you want us to accompany you to your room?” Aqua asks.

Kairi shakes her head. “No, it’s okay. I’ll be fine, I just need a good night’s sleep to offset all that crying,” she jokes with a chuckle.

They plan their visit to Master Yen Sid’s office the following day with a bit more detail before saying their goodbyes and parting ways. Kairi feels absolutely _drained_ from all the crying she’s done in the past hour, but at the same time, she feels lighter -- glad to have gotten all those things off her chest -- and, most of all, _hopeful_. She never doubted that they’d find a way to fix Sora and Riku’s problem, but now they have a bigger understanding of what’s happening; a more solid idea of how they can make it better at last.

Everything will be alright. They’ll _make_ it so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Destiny Trio rights! Kairi rights!!!!!!!!  
> I hope the pay off of their little mystery was good enough! :3 This was one of the scenes I've had in mind from the start, and it was quite fun to build up to it. Now we know what's going on at last!! This chapter kind of concludes the first part of this story, I think. There'll be some changes in the next one that I'm excited about!  
> I hope y'all are staying as safe as possible in this whole worldwide shitshow. I, for one, am definitely going to take this forced time off to write some more, so stay tuned!


	6. Chapter 5

Three days later, Riku’s lying on his bed, taking the advantage of a rare moment of peace and quiet to read one of the books he brought to the Tower ages ago, when a newly-showered Sora makes it his personal mission to annoy the hell out of him.

Said best friend throws himself over Riku’s legs -- jostling the bed violently -- and lets out a huge dramatic sigh. Riku shoots him a dirty look perfected over years of dealing with Sora’s whiny moods; Sora, much to Riku’s dismay, has grown basically immune to it.

Riku decides to keep on reading his book anyway, not even sparing the other another look. He gets through a third of a page before Sora starts kicking out his legs and groaning wordlessly: the perfect picture of a child’s tantrum. Riku continues to ignore him.

“Riiiiiiiiikuuuuuuuuuu,” Sora whines, poking his thigh insistently with a very bony finger.

Riku grits his teeth and reads another three paragraphs.

“ _Riiiiiiiiikuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu_ ,” Sora repeats, this time holding the last syllable until he runs out of breath.

Which, just for the record, takes a stupidly long time.

“Jesus _Christ_ , Sora, what do you want!?” Riku explodes, trying to think of any reasons why he _shouldn’t_ kick Sora on the head. The other is already in a prime position to receive said kick…

Sometimes, Riku cannot remember a single reason as to why he is in love with this boy.

“I wanna go _home_ ,” Sora says with his _biggest_ pout.

Riku gives him a deadpan stare. “And you’re telling _me_ this why, exactly?”

Sora kicks the bedframe with his heels a handful of times with a scowl before he switches to laying on top of Riku, staring at him from the end of Riku’s sternum. “Because it’ll be easier to convince the others if you’re on my side!”

Riku scoffs and reopens his book, almost hitting Sora’s forehead with it. The other lets out a wordless scream, headbutting Riku’s ribs mercilessly.

“Ow!” Riku protests, shoving Sora’s head to the side. “Watch where you aim that thick head at!”

“I wanna go to the beach!!” Sora exclaims, one hundred percent dedicated to his tantrum now. “I wanna eat Mom’s cooking!! I wanna play my video games again! You _know_ that there’s no reason for us to stay here anymore!”

Riku huffs, absolutely unwilling to admit that Sora is right. Master Yen Sid had hummed thoughtfully at them after they relayed their tale and acknowledged that there was no need for them to stay under watch anymore, but half their friends had banded together in secret to then convince the other half that Sora and Riku should not be trusted to leave their sight, no sir. Noooo, sir.

They argued that this was all too new; too unprecedented, and as such it’d be too risky to let them leave the Tower -- which currently housed nearly a dozen keyblade wielders, all ready to help should the need arise. The logic was sound enough, but that didn’t make the outcome chafe any less.

“I know you want out of here too,” Sora mutters darkly, his blue eyes blazing.

“Oh yeah?” Riku raises a defiant eyebrow. “And how, pray tell, did you arrive to that conclusion?”

Sora slaps his side, more sound than force. “I’ve known you since the day I was born, _literally_ , you stupid sandhead,” he scowls.

Riku hates how telling his following silence is.

Sora changes angles; going from combative to sweet and pleading.

“C’moooon,” he whines, trying for ‘adorable’ rather than ‘aggravating’. “I want to see Mom and Dad again, I wanna see Mama Hoshi, I wanna go to the Play Island,” he pouts. “You _know_ they’re being dumb with this. We’ll be careful with healing; we’ll take our time with all of it! Plus, Kairi will be nearby!”

“Kairi is travelling a lot because of her training,” Riku points out -- not because he wants Sora to give up his quest for freedom, but because he knows the others will use that as an argument. “It’s not like we could help her train right now.”

“We so could!” Sora protests. “Plus, everyone has gummi ships now! They can just come visit,” he huffs.

Riku chuckles and starts to pet Sora’s porcupine spikes, feeling fondness rise in his chest like bubbles in water.

“Please, Riku?” Sora pouts, turning the full force of his puppy eyes onto his best friend. “They’ll never accept my arguments if I go against them alone.”

Riku sighs, pondering over his options. Sora, damn him, is right: Riku _does_ want to go back home as well.

“Fine,” he says, in his most defeated tone of voice.

Instead of jumping around in glee like Riku had expected him to after this hard-won victory, Sora gives him one of his biggest grins and squeezes his arms under Riku’s back to give him a mildly uncomfortable embrace.

“You’re the best,” Sora says, low and warm. Riku’s heart skips a beat.

He hopes like hell that Sora doesn’t notice his pulse speeding up from where he is.

“Of course I am,” he scoffs, because he’d be able to follow the steps of this dance in his sleep. Sora throws him on a loop yet again, however, by continuing to smile instead of performing the well-known next part of their banter -- denying Riku’s superiority.

“Thanks, Riku,” Sora says, dropping his head onto Riku’s torso, cheek laying above his ribcage.

Too choked up to manage anything resembling human speech, Riku’s only response is to pet Sora’s head some more.

x

Convincing their friends they should be allowed to go back home is surprisingly easy, once Sora and Riku really put their minds to it. They even argue that Riku has been sleeping less and feeling considerably better after their little heart station mishap (though they _had_ napped the previous afternoon, at Sora’s insistence). At some point, Sora abandons his playful petulance altogether to give their friends a very serious look, trading his pout for a frown and pursed lips.

“I’m not gonna be careless with this,” he had said with conviction, shoulders tense and hands clenched into fists. The others had softened pretty much immediately, requiring only a handful more promises before they gave their permission for the two of them to go back to the Destiny Islands.

Thus, Riku finds himself packing away the belongings he’s been keeping in the Tower for six-odd months: a dozen or so books, a few changes of clothes, a veritable collection of assorted curatives -- despite all that he nags on Sora, he’s prone to hoarding them too -- and some souvenirs he’s picked up here and there in his search for his best friend.

Sora is throwing everything back into his magical pockets without even a slight attempt at order. Riku thanks the gods that the potion flasks are nigh-indestructible, or else Sora’s pants would be irrevocably ruined, what with all the grace the boy has been shoving them in, one after the other, with no end in sight.

Ventus and Lea had started questioning if heading home right away was a sound idea, but Sora hadn’t heard a word of it, dragging Riku by the hand back to their room to start packing. Kairi had shaken her head and announced her plans to follow suit, then. This, in turn, had created a domino effect in everyone else: if Sora, Riku and Kairi were going back to their world, then everyone else should too! Less than an hour later, the mass exodus of the Mysterious Tower had begun.

Riku could hear someone yelling at another floor through their open door, which Sora had left ajar with a shrug. Riku’s in the middle of figuring out how to transport his belongings (would the Tower give him a suitcase if he asked?) when he realizes Sora has been standing motionless in the dead middle of their bedroom for far too long.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, quirking an eyebrow.

“Do you think we could take the bean bag?” Sora asks back, turning his puppy eyes on.

Riku snorts. “You seriously want to take it?”

“Of course I do!! It’s so comfy!!”

“I’m not the one carrying it to the gummi ship,” Riku declares with a smirk.

“Meanie,” Sora blows a raspberry in his direction.

“Lazy.”

“But Riku, you’re so strong!” Sora whines.

“Flattery will not change my mind,” Riku shrugs, laughing at his best friend’s pout.

Somewhere in between the crazy, headless-chicken-like running everyone is doing around the Tower, Sora and Riku come across a harried Naminé. Sora obviously stops to greet her and ask her how she’s doing, while Riku sends her a nod and a smile.

“We kinda had a last-minute decision to go to the Land of Departure,” she explains, gesturing to Vanitas and Rikuto in the room behind her. “Everyone’s moving out all of a sudden, and we… don’t want to be here alone,” she adds, voice getting quieter with each word, clenching her clasped hands tightly.

“That’s good!” Sora exclaims, grinning widely.

Naminé nods, grateful. “We’d been thinking about it for some time. I think we could be of more use there... we could help them with the rebuilding _and_ we’d get to learn more about magic and keyblade wielding.”

“What about Aqua and Vanitas?” Riku asks, aware that there’s still some bad blood hanging between those two.

Naminé winces. “I could tell that she wasn’t thrilled with him going too, but she and Terra took us all in either way,” she replies, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

“I bet Ventus is already thinking of a way to break the ice between them,” Sora snorts. Naminé laughs.

“That’s what it looked like! But we’ll see. This is a good second chance,” she nods to herself.

“It is,” Sora agrees, then they part ways.

Riku just about rolls down the stairs laughing at Sora, who is doing his utmost to carry the bean bag to their gummi ship -- even though it blocks nearly his entire field of vision. Kairi swats Riku’s arm upon seeing him laugh so hard, but joke’s on her since Riku notices her hiding a chuckle as well.

Naminé catches them doing this and asks Sora if they’re allowed to take furniture from the Tower, her eyes the closest to sparkling Riku has ever seen. Some time later, they see Vanitas and Rikuto huffing through the process of carrying _Naminé’s_ bean bag to the gummi ship bound to the Land of Departure; Sora stomps his feet and calls Riku about a dozen bad names for leaving _him_ to suffer all alone.

“What’s that, are we stealing stuff from the Tower now? Is that allowed?” Lea asks from his spot near the Twilight Town gummi ship.

“It’s not stealing!” Sora insists, sticking out his tongue. “The Tower gave us the bean bags ‘cause we asked for them!”

“You can _ask_ the Tower for stuff?? Why did no one tell me this?!” Lea exclaims, running back into the Tower immediately after.

Riku predicts that they’re going to be leaving with a lot more furniture than expected.

The courtyard is a bit cramped with three gummi ships parked on it all at the same time, but they make do, weaving around each other and talking in between breaks. Sora and Riku finish putting their stuff in the Destiny Islands gummi ship long before everyone else -- travelling around for two years had the depressing consequence of teaching them to live sparsely.

It’s not long before the goodbyes start. Riku gets more hugs than he is frankly comfortable with, but he fixes a smile to his face and lets them blur on his mind, nodding when their friends tell him and Sora to be careful, to stay safe, to call often. Riku has been tiring less easily lately, but the size of this gathering -- everyone talking and laughing and hugging like they aren’t going to be just a short gummi ship trip away -- depletes his energy like nobody’s business.

Riku’s hopes of masking this sudden exhaustion are unsurprisingly crushed into a million pieces by Sora, who remains vigilant of him even when surrounded by their other friends. When Riku finds himself blinking for a few seconds too long, Sora deftly brings all his conversations to an end to herd Riku up the ramp and onto the bean bag that had been placed near the seats, with Kairi following them up at a leisure pace.

Riku wants to protest and insist that he should be sitting on one of the tall-backed seats like Sora and Kairi, especially when he hears Sora start to explain to Kairi how to pilot the gummi ship -- they do _not_ need another reckless flier! -- but all the words die on his tongue when another long blink tricks him into actually falling asleep.

x

Something swells inside Sora’s chest, growing bigger the closer they get to Destiny Islands.

On the flight there, Kairi had confessed rather ruefully that they had never told their parents of his disappearance -- or visited them in those long months --, explaining that Riku refused to consider the possibility of them failing to find Sora -- and if they were going to find him anyway, what was the point of causing their parents the unnecessary pain of uncertainty?

Sora doesn’t know exactly how to feel about that, giving the sleeping Riku a long glance.

They fly to the Play Island right away, bypassing the Main Island entirely. Kairi tells him that after the world returned from the darkness, their little island had been completely abandoned; they figure that even though the Islands’ inhabitants don’t remember what happened in that fateful night, their hearts must know that the Play island was the origin of it all.

This, of course, makes it the perfect place to hide their gummi ship at. Sora remembers the strange looks he and Riku were constantly subjected to in their brief stay in the Islands before the Mark of Mastery exam; he knows that there are _rumours_ scurrying about, even if Kairi has been kind enough not to repeat them.

It’s understandable, really. For everyone other than Kairi, Sora and Riku had been there one night and gone the next without a trace or any warning; their parents left desolate in the wake of their disappearance. Sora regrets keeping the raft and their plans to leave a secret from their parents on occasion, recalling the tears his mother and father had shed when Sora and Riku came back to the Islands as suddenly as they had left.

Kairi’s parents had been out of their mind with worry when their little girl vanished as well, a little before the final battle with Xemnas. Sora honestly has a hard time understanding how she managed to convince them to let her leave with them to train some time later, but that’s a question for another occasion.

Sora lands the gummi ship on a stretch of empty beach and simply takes in the scenery for a moment, running his eyes over the late-afternoon sky, the white sand and the endlessly blue sea.

They’re _home_.

He wakes Riku up with a few well-placed pokes, laughing at the other’s complaints and half-lidded eyes. Sora would float all the way to the Main Island if he had a little bit of pixie dust on him, but as it stands, they have to balance precariously on one of the boats that had been forgotten at the dock -- a boat that was meant for _children_ , not three lanky teenagers, to say the least. The bean bag stays in the ship, much to Sora’s dismay, but even he can admit that they have no way of totting it around right now.

The whispers begin as soon as they dock at the Main Island. People point and stare at the sight they make, all carrying backpacks and suitcases, but Sora, Riku and Kairi just ignore them outright.

Their start by dropping off Kairi at the mayor’s house, with hugs so tight that their bones creak and a promise to exchange texts later. As they head down the path that will lead to their neighborhood, Sora and Riku argue about which house they should visit first, eventually deciding on going to Sora’s.

Sora feels like he’s swallowed about a billion flying insects as he reaches out for the doorknob, aware that the door will be unlocked at this hour of the afternoon. He steels himself with a deep breath and turns it, hearing the familiar creak of the old hinges announce their presence.

“Daichi, you’re home ear--” his mom, Aiko, says amicably, cutting herself mid-word upon glancing in their direction and noticing who exactly has just arrived.

The books she’d been holding all escape from her suddenly-lax grip. In the aftermath, Aiko brings a hand up to her mouth, tears quickly gathering in her eyes.

“Sora?” she asks, voice reedy and thin, incredulous. The insects in Sora’s stomach become more frenzied.

“I’m home, Mom,” Sora declares, his throat tight -- he can never take it when she cries.

“Oh my _god_ , Sora!” Aiko exclaims, sprinting forward to gather him in a big, warm hug. She buries her face in the crook of his neck for a good ten seconds, then lifts her head and catches sight of Riku. “Come here you too,” she chides, tears streaming down her face as Riku does as he’s been told.

Their little moment is broken by Hoshi’s voice filtering out from the kitchen.

“Are you alright, Aiko? I heard something fal--” she stops, freezing in the doorway to the living room with a sharp intake of breath. “Riku,” she exhales, eyes wide as saucers, before snapping out of her trance and running to join in their teary hug.

“We’re back,” Riku whispers into their embrace. “I’m sorry we took so long.”

“What matters is that you’re here now,” Aiko says, drawing back and reaching out to run her fingers through Riku’s hair, then turning to do the same with Sora. “That’s all that matters,” she repeats, still barely believing that they were there, with them. Their children were back!.

“Look at how you’ve grown,” Hoshi chuckles wetly, wiping away a few tears as she gives them both once-overs.

“And they’ve changed their hair!” Aiko notes. “It suits you two,” she tells both of them.

“New clothes, too,” Hoshi adds, wiping imaginary dust from Riku’s shoulder. She hugs then again, breathing in deeply.

“But you look so tired,” Aiko frowns, cupping Sora’s cheek. “Have you been eating well? Sleeping properly?” she fusses.

Sora can’t help but smile at his mom, remembering how she used to bandage their scrapes all throughout their childhood and early adolescence. The casual check-ups came with the territory of having a nurse for a mother -- and a doctor for your _best friend’s_ mother.

“We’ve been eating fine, Mom,” Sora says, leaning into her hand.

“It’s just… been a rough couple months,” Riku confesses, voice quiet.

Hoshi sighs. “Oh, Aiko, look at our boys,” she says, frowning sadly.

 _Our_ boys. It’s always been like that, even in Sora’s oldest memories; he and Riku have always been a pair, an unbreakable unit -- they were children of four parents since the moment they were born. His chest warms at the reminder.

“Come sit in the kitchen,” Aiko suggests, slotting one of her hands in Sora’s, the other in Riku’s. “We’ll make tea and you can tell us about your newest adventure,” she smiles.

Sora does most of the story-telling, describing the worlds he’d visited, the people he met and helped. They obviously skip over most of the battles; that’s not something you tell your parents, no matter how supportive and accepting they are. Their mothers don’t need to know how many times they came closer to death than they’d like to admit.

Once they get into the topic of the friends they had saved, Sora whips out his gummi phone and opens his gallery, talking a mile a minute about everyone in the few dozen photos he’s taken just in the past week. It all screeches to a half pretty early on, when Sora comes across a photo that has both Roxas and Ventus in it.

Aiko beams. “It’s so nice that they can stay together! I can’t imagine how leaving your twin behind would feel like in this situation,” she says. Riku starts chuckling, Sora scratches the back of his head with an awkward laugh.

“You didn’t even think about this, did you?” Riku teases, elbowing Sora just under the ribs. Sora blows a raspberry in his direction.

“What are you two hiding?” Hoshi frowns, studying the photo more closely.

“They aren’t twins, Mom, Mama Hoshi. Or related, really. At all.”

Aiko splutters in obvious disbelief. “But they have the same face!”

“Yeah,” Sora draws out the sound.

“It’s a long and complicated story that I’m not sure even _I_ get,” Riku reassures both their mothers. “Just keep in mind that they aren’t brothers or even knew each other at all three months ago.”

Hoshi blinks. “Alright, if you say so,” she says very slowly.

Of course, that doesn’t even compare to the mothers’ reaction when Sora reaches the one photo that has Vanitas and Rikuto in it. Both Aiko and Hoshi do double-takes of their sons, sputtering in confusion.

“Did you dye your hair?!” Aiko asks Sora, agitated.

Hoshi squints at the picture. “Is… Is this recent? You don’t look seventeen here, Riku.”

Riku ruffles his choppy hair with a wince. “That’s, uh… even more complicated.”

“Okay, so,” Sora starts, clearing his throat, “Vanitas looks like me because of something similar to what made Roxas and Ventus look alike, I guess. Heart... _stuff_.”

“But Roxas and Ventus look exactly the same,” Hoshi stresses. “So why is this ‘Vanitas’ boy black-haired and red-eyed instead?”

“ _Huh_.” Sora raises his eyebrows. “That’s a good question, actually. I have _no_ idea.”

“And that’s not me,” Riku says. “He’s like… a-a clone, almost. He has most of my memories up to when I was about fifteen, but he’s not the same person as I am,” he attempts to explain.

Aiko takes a slow deep breath. “This is... a lot.”

Sora laughs sheepishly. “It is, isn’t it? I kinda forgot how confusing this all was,” he rubs his nose with a crooked smile.

“Does he remember us? This boy-- your ‘clone’, I mean,” Hoshi asks hesitantly.

Riku sighs. “Yeah. Some of his memories were altered, so he doesn’t really know Kairi and stuff, but he knows the Islands and Sora.”

“He decided he wanted to be called Rikuto,” Sora adds helpfully.

“That’s -- difficult, isn’t it?” Aiko wrings her hands. “To have memories of friendships that aren’t really reciprocated?”

“...Would he miss us? His parents?” Hoshi wonders quietly, exchanging a helpless look with Aiko.

“I don’t know,” Riku says, sounding tired. “We offered to have him and his friends come live here in the Islands, but they thought it was best to go elsewhere.”

“They want to figure out a life for themselves,” Sora explains. “He’s not Riku, not really. Even if Rikuto didn’t have his memories altered, they wouldn’t be the same person now.”

“That’s true,” Hoshi smiles, reaching out to brush her son’s cheek. “My baby has changed so much during these adventures,” she whispers wistfully.

Aiko nods, smiling as well, and Sora beams at his best friend. Riku’s cheeks go pink under all this attention; it only takes a few seconds before he ducks his head down to escape from the weight of their gazes. Aiko laughs.

“Don’t be shy,” she encourages, taking his hand in hers. “Be proud of how you’ve grown.”

“I am,” Riku affirms.

“Good!” Sora grins, receiving a very light kick to the ankle for his troubles.

“There’s more to tell, though,” Riku grimaces.

Hoshi and Aiko immediately sit up straighter. “Is something wrong?” Hoshi asks a little desperately, looking over them more closely.

“A consequence of something that happened during the final battle,” Riku replies. Sora purses his lips at the cover up for his three months-long disappearance. “Sora and I… can’t really stay apart physically right now,” he confesses, hands clenched into fists over the table.

“...Why?” Aiko frowns.

“Another weird heart thing,” Sora says, watching Riku subtly curl in on himself. “We have to be less than a certain distance from one another, or else it’s… real bad, Mom,” he glances at his mother. “It was really scary.”

“What happened?” Hoshi asks, a touch distressed.

“Riku collapsed a bunch of times before we figured it out,” Sora sighs. “He’d just-- drop.”

Hoshi pushes her chair closer to Riku, pulling her son into a one-armed hug. “Oh, honey, what have you gone through?” she frets, pulling his head closer to hers. Sora looks away when Riku hides his face on her shoulder, accepting a hug from his own mother.

They talk in whispers for a while, with Aiko asking about how he’s really been -- not just physically -- and Sora mumbling his replies into the fabric of her blouse as she brushes his hair with her fingers. He has _missed_ this fiercely: her quiet understanding and easy comfort, the way she just _knew_ the way to calm him down when he was sad or upset -- a skill borne from fourteen years of daily convivence and some magical motherly instinct that Sora had never fully worked out the details of, but that she also shared with Mama Hoshi.

She tells him how things have been in the Islands during their absence, how his dad is doing -- how he should be home in a couple hours, and won’t it be funny to see his face when he comes back only to discover that Sora and Riku are back? -- and other meaningless little details about her days at work and the like.

Sora withdraws from her embrace a few minutes later feeling much better, if a bit scraped raw. He drops a noisy kiss to her cheek just to hear her laughing protest.

“I missed you so much, Mom,” he says, rubbing her arm gently. She coos and calls him a sweetheart, returning the sentiment with a whisper.

“So,” Hoshi starts, surreptitiously brushing tears away from her eyes as she finishes her little moment with Riku as well. “What will this mean for us?”

“We’re gonna have to live in the same house,” Sora says. “But maybe we could, I dunno, divide up our time between here and your house, Mama Hoshi?”

“Maybe a week here, a week there?” Aiko suggests.

“Or three days, if that wouldn’t be too much moving around for the two of you,” Hoshi amends. “Wouldn’t be much different from when you were kids,” she laughs. “You’ve always ended up just sleeping in the house that was closest.”

“Three days sounds good,” Riku smiles.

Their moms have a short but intense wordless conversation then -- just eyebrows and eyes moving. Sora can recall at least half a dozen other moments like these from their childhood at the drop of a hat.

“You’ll spend the first three days here,” Aiko declares once their discussion has been concluded. “I have the morning shift tomorrow, but Daichi will be home all day.”

“Sweet!” Sora grins.

“We’ll have to set up your rooms again,” Hoshi notes. “Will you need to travel elsewhere anytime soon?”

“Nope, not really,” Sora replies. “We miiiight go visit some friends eventually, but nothing longer than three days? I think?” he shrugs, looking at Riku for confirmation.

“Yeah. There shouldn’t be anything to pull us back into the fray for some time,” his best friend nods.

“You’ll need new clothes, then,” Aiko declares. “We did buy some when you came back a few months ago, but I think you grew a little since.”

“And you’re gonna need more than just a handful of shirts and two pairs of pants, you hear?” Hoshi nods in agreement.

“Oh right!” Sora exclaims, shoving a hand in one of his pockets to ruffle through all the potions and refocusers inside it in search of one item in particular. Riku laughs at how Sora’s tongue peeks out, but Sora pays him no mind, letting out a quiet ‘ _aha!_ ’ sound when his fingers finally brush against the thing he’s looking for.

His munny pouch makes a thousand tinny tinkling sounds when he deposits it on the table with a flourish. After so many worlds visited and so many heartless defeated, he has enough coins that the pouch’s fabric is almost tearing apart at the seams.

Aiko’s mouth falls open. Hoshi’s aqua-colored eyes -- the same as Riku’s -- go almost impossibly wide, especially when Riku digs his _own_ similarly bulging munny pouch out, not to be overdone.

The women splutter and stammer; Aiko reaches for Sora’s pouch with one shaking hand.

“It’s not as much as I had last time, but it’s still a lot!” Sora declares proudly.

“Sora,” his mother sputters. “We haven’t spent even a _tenth_ of what you brought home a few months ago!”

Sora chuckles and folds his hands behind his head, feeling very pleased with himself.

Hoshi takes Riku’s pouch and turns it over in her hands incredulously. “How much is here?”

Riku shrugs. “About seventy grand.”

The pouch is dropped back to the table with a clatter. Sora lets out a yell of frustration.

“Where the hell did you get that much?!” he asks.

Riku gives him a lazy smirk, leaning back and throwing an arm over the back of the chair. “Oh, you know. Just the Realm of Darkness,” he replies, checking his nails smugly.

Sora screams again, standing up in one fluid motion to attack his best friend. Riku, damn him, is already on his feet and halfway across the room by the time Sora lunges for him, prompting a wild chase around the house with lots of yelling and taunting.

Hoshi and Aiko stay frozen at the table for a long time, staring at the huge amount of money in front of them with unreadable expressions on their faces.

x

An hour later, once everyone has calmed down and the munny has been safely hidden away, Sora and Riku find themselves in the former’s room to start figuring out their own living arrangements.

Riku kicks a robot figurine away with an expression of disgust. “I don’t know how you can live in all this mess,” he comments, even though he is well aware Sora has always been like this.

Sora shrugs. “I just don’t care,” he grins, knowing this will rile Riku up. Riku makes a noise of distaste.

“One day I’ll snap and throw you in the trash along with everything in here,” he says, clearing off a section of the bed to have a place to sit.

“Meanie,” Sora sticks his tongue out as expected, jumping onto the covers without a care in the world and screaming in pain as soon as he connects. Riku chortles in vindication when Sora digs out a toy boat from under the blankets -- the culprit for his newest bruise.

They sit in silence for a handful of minutes, studying all the marks their shared childhood has left in this bedroom. The height marks on the doorway -- that had both Sora’s and Riku’s heights, just like the one in Riku’s own bedroom -- that had been last updated in Sora’s fourteenth birthday; the game console and chunky tube TV off to the side that they had spent hundreds of hours in front of; the forgotten textboots that still cluttered Sora’s desk, with homework that Riku never got out of helping Sora with, because he was a year ahead and thus already knew everything.

Riku watches in quiet interest as Sora sits up all of a sudden, pausing for a moment before he stands up and heads for his school bag, messing around in it. He crows in victory upon finding his pencil case, taking out a blue marker with a grin sent back at Riku.

Sora then stands in front of the closed door for a second, scowling when Riku continues to sit in bed without a word

“What?” Riku asks, immediately defensive in a way only Sora and Kairi can make him.

“Come mark my height!” Sora taps his foot impatiently. Riku rolls his eyes, but does get off of bed.

“Was I just supposed to _guess_?”

“Of course you were!” Sora huffs, nose up in the air, like Riku should be aware of every thought that passes through his mind.

God, sometimes Riku wants nothing more than for that to be the case. Other times, he is realistic enough to admit that he’d end up killing either Sora or himself if it were so.

As it is, Riku decides to just ignore the silent statement. “Stand up straight,” he chides instead, pushing Sora’s face down and smirking at the pout that earns him.

They have to flatten the spikes to mark down his true height, but afterwards they make another with the boost the hair gives him -- following the tradition of all the past marks. _Sora, 16 (w/out hair)_ passes _Riku, 15_ by a few centimeters; Riku feels some unknowable emotion crawl upwards on his chest at this realization, letting it sink its claws deep into his ribcage for a moment before it dissipates.

Sora has moved away from the door by the time Riku snaps back into himself, and Riku finds a glare being directed at him yet again in the ensuing seconds. Sora doesn’t even let him blink in confusion before he’s shoving Riku against the door too, snatching the marker from his hands with a put-on huff.

“You’re so out of it today, Riku,” Sora complains.

“Sorry?”

Sora shakes his head, muttering a few insults under his breath before he gets onto his tiptoes to better judge where to jot down the mark on the doorway.

“You’re too tall!” he protests, one of his hands patting the top of Riku’s head while the other writes _Riku, 17_ way above all other marks. Riku laughs under his breath.

Sora caps the marker and sets it on his desk, sorting through some papers absentmindedly. Riku twists his hands, taking a few steps away from the door, feeling a little bit lost.

“Should be about an hour before Mom finishes dinner,” Sora says, back still turned to him. “What d’you wanna do?”

Riku exhales slowly, forcing himself to release the tension that insists on gripping his muscles. “I don’t know.”

Sora sends him a smile over his shoulder. “It’s been a couple days since we read more of _The Lightning Thief_. How ‘bout that?”

Riku rotates his shoulders. “Sounds good,” he nods, making his way to the suitcase where he’d stashed the box set away in.

“Since we don’t have the bean bag in here yet, the bed will have to do,” Sora declares, narrowing his eyes at said piece of furniture.

“Only if you clean it out first,” Riku says, leaving no room for argument. Sora rolls his eyes and groans like a child before doing what he’s been told.

Once the sheets have been changed, they lie in bed in a position that is becoming steadily familiar: Riku lying mostly flat with one of his legs bent at the knee, Sora molded to his side with his head on Riku’s shoulder and lending a hand to help hold the book upright.

Riku tampers down the urge to say they fit together like puzzle pieces, well aware that nothing good waits for him down that path. He’s spent too long with this love living inside his chest to not know the things that come at its heels -- the jealousy, the longing, the adoration; the despair. Riku is embarrassingly intimate with all of it.

So he reads and reads, even as part of his brain makes note of Sora’s warm breath near his skin; of how the fingers of his free hand play with the arm Riku had put around Sora to keep him secure in place; or how Sora throws a leg over Riku’s, seemingly without thinking. He reads and thinks about Greek gods and mythical creatures, summer camps and new friends.

Daichi -- Sora’s father -- finds them in this position and doesn’t even bat an eye. Sora scrambles to go over Riku and throw himself into his father’s embrace; Riku smiles upon watching them whisper at each other, missing a father he barely remembers.

“What are you doing all the way over there, Riku?” Daichi asks, amidst his unabashed tears. Sora’s family has never cared about hiding the hearts that lived permanently on their sleeves, after all.

“He’s out of it today, Dad; you gotta _make_ him do stuff,” Sora says, equally teary, going to drag Riku by the wrist into their reunion.

Daichi hugs Riku like his own son -- a hug Riku has received countless times over the years. He draws back and fusses over him just like Aiko had done, keeping a steady hand on his shoulder as he asks them about their newest adventure. His only reaction to learning that Sora and Riku will be dividing their time between two houses is glee at having them back at all.

“We’ll be able to go out at sea together again,” he grins. “See who catches the biggest fish, have bonfires at the beach…”

“As if you don’t already know you’re gonna catch the biggest one, Dad,” Sora rolls his eyes. Daichi is a fisherman -- it stands to reason he knows the sea better than they do.

“You never know,” Daichi winks. “What were you boys doing?”

“Reading,” Riku responds.

“Not even a full day in and you already got Sora to sit still long enough to _read_? Riku, my boy, how have we missed you!” he laughs. Sora’s protests and displeased jabs at his side only make him laugh harder.

“I take offense on that!!!” his son exclaims, blue eyes blazing. Daichi regards them fondly with those same blue eyes.

“I’ll let the two of you do that,” he says, giving both of them a hair ruffle that has Riku leaning into the touch. “I’m gonna call you down when dinner’s ready, alright?”

Sora hums an affirmative. Daichi presses a kiss on both of their foreheads, having to pull Riku down a little to give him his, even though Riku is not that much taller than him. He closes the door with a smile, leaving the room silent and almost dimmer.

Riku sighs happily when Sora sneaks an arm around his waist, pressing his side to Riku’s. “It feels good to be home, doesn’t it?” he asks quietly.

“It does,” Riku exhales, feeling something inside his chest slot back into place.

“I’m never gonna take this for granted again.”

“Yeah,” Riku swallows, lowering his head. “Me neither.”

His best friend takes a loud and drawn-out breath, still attached to his side. Riku copies it almost without thinking.

Sora smiles at him once they’re done. “Wanna keep reading?”

Riku return the smile, wondering if this light feeling inside his chest would allow him to fly if he tried.

“Sure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ventus, Lea and Xion were the oens to decide it was too risky, with a side participation of Roxas. Originally, I was going to have them stay at the Tower almost indefinitely, but then I fell in love with the idea of them seeing their parents again and being _home_ in a more definitive way for the first time in two-ish years, and that was it, I was lost.  
> Riku has Feelings™️, y'all. Those feelings will be reciprocated _eventually_ , but I warn y'all right away that the slow burn tag is there For A Reason.  
> I just love the thought of Sora and Riku having good, present moms. In a lot of fics, Riku doesn't have a good relationship with his parents, so it's interesting to see what happens when that's changed. Aiko and Hoshi, as well as Daichi, were all made by greeneggs101 for their AMAZING fic Shattered/Scattered, which I would deadass give my soul for and is one of my top 3 favorite Soriku fics of all time (together with caseyvalhala's Boys and CalicoColors' Even In The Darkest Shade of Dawn). I'm using them with permission! I just loved them so much.  
> The next few chapters are gonna be spent in the Islands, though not without visitors! Ain't telling whom, but they're gonna have friends over eventually. Especially since the Twilight Town gang never did get to visit the beach like they planned to... [rubs hands together and cackles] not on the next chapter though, but on the one after that.  
> I hope this chapter was enjoyable! I had fun with the wistfulness at the end. They're home at last ❤️


	7. Chapter 6

The Mall that sits near the center of the Main Island is not a place Sora has visited often. It’s a sprawling building that holds a busy food court and a dozen or so stores, often frequented by the popular kids from school and their well-off parents.

Sora and his friends had always gone the other way -- towards the beaches and the infinite ocean.

Aiko, however, had declared it to be the best place to buy the variety of clothes they’re after, thus the mall is decided as their destination. Kairi comes along with them, which is a blessing: in her colorful sundress, she fits right in with the crowd.

The whispers had started the _moment_ Sora and Riku had stepped out of the former’s house, following them as faithfully as their shadows all the way to the mall -- wherein the murmurs reached a fever pitch. Sora, Riku, Kairi and Aiko staunchly ignore all the commotion around them, joking and laughing as they head into the first store.

Since Kairi doesn’t need an entirely new wardrobe like her best friends do, she gets to help Aiko decide what looks best on the boys. Sora envies her position _fiercely_ by the second store, getting quickly tired of changing into outfit after outfit to parade in front of the two of them just to have yet another shirt denied. _Girls_ , honestly. His only solace is that Riku is being subjected to the same torture.

Aiko had taken a good percentage of the munny Sora had brought home from his last adventure to pay for all their purchases. Sora finds the way she holds onto her purse -- almost desperately, scanning her surroundings for purse-snatchers with such fierce scrutiny that makes Sora think a heartless is going to pop up -- kind of funny, but she would probably smack him with it if he voiced that thought, so he keeps it to himself.

They take a break to eat at the food court after the third store, setting an embarrassingly high number of shopping bags under their table. Sora gorges himself in one of the biggest burgers the place has, though Riku isn’t that far behind, either, leaving Kairi to just stare at them in plain disgust while Aiko laughs at their antics.

“We’re gonna have to take a taxi back home, huh,” Sora comments, nudging one of the bags with his foot. “We’ll be carrying way too much stuff for the bus.”

“I already suspected that’d be the case,” Aiko says, sipping her soda.

“Hopefully you boys will stop growing so we can never do this again,” Kairi grins.

“No way!” Sora exclaims loudly, drawing even more looks their way than they already had. “I have to get bigger than Riku!”

Riku snorts so hard he nearly chokes on his bite, forcing it down with a huge sip of his milkshake. 

“Like that’ll ever happen!” he laughs loudly. Sora kicks his shin immediately, prompting Riku to jab his elbow into Sora’s ribs in retaliation.

“ _Boys_ ,” Aiko warns with the tried-and-true tone of motherly disapproval. “Let’s not cause a scene, alright?”

“More than we already are, you mean,” Riku mutters into his straw, out of Aiko’s hearing range. Sora shares an irreverent grin with him.

Sora whines until the girls give him less clothes to try on, but Riku doesn’t have the hindsight to do the same. This means that Sora gets to sit outside the changing rooms and watch his oldest friend circle in and out, laughing as Riku grows increasingly disgruntled.

He is snapped out of his reverie by Aiko lifting a hand to her cheek with a coo.

“Riku, you’ve grown so handsome!” she smiles, fussing at him. Kairi giggles from her place next to Sora.

Riku blushes upon hearing the compliment. He’s wearing dark, fitted jeans and a midnight blue V-neck; Sora can admit that the outfit looks good on him.

“Sora!” Aiko calls.

Sora hums to show he’s listening, silently studying Riku’s biceps and wondering if his can ever get to that size. Probably not, but that won’t stop Sora from trying.

“Isn’t Riku handsome?” his mom asks. This makes Riku blush even more, but Sora is still too focused on the biceps, so he doesn’t realize this.

“Yeah, sure,” he replies with a shrug. Riku turns away from them as Kairi’s giggles evolve into a loud laugh and Aiko’s eyes shine with mirth. Sora frowns. “What?” he asks the three of them, unable to figure out what caused them to react that way.

“Nothing, Sora,” Kairi says, wiping away a tear. “You’re just _too_ adorable,” she pats his cheek.

“...Okay?”

Fitting all their bags inside the taxi ends up being a challenge -- Sora’s sure the driver will talk about them for the years to come -- but they make it home in one piece. It took them multiple hours of torture and nearly all the munny Aiko had brought, but the two of them have a full wardrobe again at last: casual clothes, formal clothes, swimwear, training garb, as well as a few things that could come in handy in some other worlds, like a goddamn proper winter coat. 

The cashier had given them the _weirdest_ stare when they got to that item. Containing his grin at that moment had been much harder than Sora would ever have expected -- the guy must have thought them _insane_ , buying a fluffy winter coat in the height of Destiny Islands’ dry season. Alas, Sora doesn’t care so long as he can be warm in Arendelle.

Thinking about the weather reminds Sora of something he wanted to bring up.

“Mom?” he calls, leaning back on the couch until he can look at her upside down.

“Yes, Sora?”

“Can we get an AC unit installed?”

Aiko purses her lips. “Sora, AC units are expensive,” she says as if they hadn’t spent literal _thousands_ on clothes not even two hours ago. Riku chuckles under his breath.

The fan in Sora’s room, even as big and powerful as it is, is not enough to prevent them from waking up doused in sweat and halfway glued together in a very non-figurative sense. This is very distressing, especially because Sora _refuses_ to stop cuddling Riku, even if all the sweat involved comes very close to convincing him otherwise.

“But Mom, didn’t you say you and Dad hadn’t spent even a tenth of what I gave you? What we have is more than enough to buy and maintain one, right?” he scrunches his nose.

Aiko startles a bit. “Oh, that’s right,” she comments. Sora suspects that she’s been so successful in hiding the munny away from possible burglars that she has kind of forgot they could use it in the first place. She sighs. “Alright, Sora, you win. I’ll talk with Daichi and we’ll see about visiting the store.”

Sora jumps to his feet with a victorious yell, running to her side to give her a loud kiss on the cheek. “You’re the best!” he grins, laughing when she bats him away.

“You’re just happy you’re not going to have to run to Hoshi’s to escape the heat anymore,” she rolls her eyes with a smile.

“That’s just the icing on the cake, Mom!”

Kairi steps back into the kitchen from the corridor, where she had gone to make a phone call to her parents to notify them that she’d have dinner at Sora’s house.

“What are you so happy about?” she asks Sora, an easy smile sprouting.

“Mom is _finally_ gonna buy an AC!”

Aiko rolls her eyes good-naturedly. “I said I’m going to _talk_ with your dad about it, Sora.”

“Same thing!” Sora teases.

Aiko bats at his shoulder. “Out of my kitchen, the two of you. Go join Riku in the living room.”

Sora plops down next to Riku with a self-satisfied little grin the next moment, much to his best friends’ amusement.

“So Sora, have you brought the bean bag home yet?” Kairi raises an eyebrow, taking a seat in the wicker chair she had claimed as her own years and years ago.

“Oh! Not yet, but Dad said we can set out tomorrow on his ship to grab it,” he says, bouncing in place.

“Then you’re heading to Riku’s the day after that to spend three days there, right?”

“Yep!”

Kairi furrows her brows. “Doesn’t that mean you’ll have spent four days in here, though?”

Sora shrugs. “Mom and Mama Hoshi decided the first day didn’t count. It took them a really long time to get to that, so I just didn’t question it,” he says at a slightly lower volume, sparing a glance in the direction of his mother.

“To sum it up: business as usual,” Riku smirks. Kairi laughs.

“They’ve been talking about taking a day off of work so we can spend time at the beach, all of us together like old times. Wanna come?” Sora asks Kairi.

“Do you even need to ask?” she scoffs, making Sora grin in response.

“Dunno, maybe your parents have plans for the next few days already.”

“As if they aren’t used to sharing me with you guys,” she rolls her eyes. Riku snorts.

“God, Kairi, how many parents do you even have?”

Kairi makes a show of counting on her fingers. “Like, eight?”

They all dissolve into laughter. Sora has never felt more at home than he does now, surrounded by his two best friends, with his Dad and Mama Hoshi at work while his Mom’s puttering about the house.

A little before dinner, Kairi gives them a more serious look and lowers her voice to a near whisper, scooting forward on her seat to be closer to them.

“I just-- I gotta ask, okay?” is what she prefaces her question with, tone a bit apologetic. “Have you two tried healing again?”

“No,” Sora replies, equally as quiet. “We’re not gonna do it on a whim after what happened,” he reassures her, wearing a serious expression.

She exhales in visible relief, shoulders losing her tension. “I’m sorry for asking.”

“We get it,” Riku shakes his head.

“Yeah,” Sora agrees, then smiles ruefully. “You had to see the lecture Donald gave me, he got _this_ close to jumping into a gummi ship to roast me in person,” he chuckles. Kairi giggles.

“I don’t think he’d stop at a Firaga,” she says. Sora feigns a shudder.

“Oh man, I don’t wanna even think about that, let’s change the subject!”

He gets laughed at, but his best friends oblige; Kairi starts a heated argument about which spells should work best underwater -- something that Sora has personal experience with, thank you very much.

If this is to be Sora’s life from now on, he’s certainly not complaining.

x

Their little trip to the beach happens in the following day due to a stroke of luck, in the form of both Hoshi and Aiko being able to exchange shifts with co-workers. Daichi cajoles a protesting Sora out of bed at 6 a.m. sharp to help them prepare their bags, going so far as to bring the supplies to his son’s room when Sora argues that he can’t go too far away from Riku.

Sora packs with half-lidded eyes, shoving folded towels, sunscreen bottles and bagged snacks for their whole group inside the same bags his family has been using for six years and counting. As the children grew up and started to go out on their own more often, the amount of family trips diminished accordingly; thus, the fact that their parents are taking the steps to make them a thing again gives Sora the warm and fuzzies despite his drowsiness.

Their plans to go out before 8 a.m. are dashed by Riku, who continues to sleep despite all the buzz around the house. Sora and Kairi hesitate to wake him, thinking back to how he’s been doing in the past two weeks, but Hoshi shoos them out of the room with orders to finish getting ready while she deals with her own son. Suffice to say, Riku is up and about not long after.

Heading down to the beach is a very familiar experience to all of them: they stick to the Main Island, making their way to the same spot their parents have been using since they were children, away from the dock and from the dozens of stores lining the coast.

Their little spot is far from empty when they arrive, but that’s to be expected -- the schools are out, after all, and the chilly water is a great way to escape the merciless heat. Hoshi and Daichi start setting their stuff up while Aiko, Sora, Riku and Kairi jump into the water for a quick dip.

Sora notices the usual stares they attract, but he concludes that now there’s at least a plausible reason for them: Kairi is stunning in her red bikini, having ditched her sundress as soon as they got to the beach, while Riku has all his enviable muscles on display. Next to them, Sora is nothing special, but that thought has never actually bothered him; he’s just happy to have such amazing friends.

Hoshi smiles at them once they’ve all finished arranging their things, brushing her silver bangs out of her eyes.

“Why don’t you kids have fun for now?” she suggests, passing them a well-loved beach ball. “We’ll finish setting up and you can come back when you get hungry enough for lunch.”

“Sounds good!” Sora grins, giving her a kiss on the cheek. Aiko protests upon seeing this, so Sora gives her a kiss as well -- and one for Daichi too, for good measure.

They play with passing the ball around in the water for some time, forming up a wide triangle with Riku further back, at a deeper point. Sora and Kairi complain about his height, but this only makes Riku smirk and flick his hair back in a display of smugness that has Sora abandoning the game to dunk Riku’s laughing self underwater.

Sora is suddenly reminded of Aiko’s comment on Riku’s appearance upon watching his best friend resurface. With the sun shining overhead and the water surrounding him, Riku looks like a model straight out of a photoshoot -- silver hair wet and mostly plastered to his face, grinning so hard his aqua-colored eyes become little half-moons. The image stops Sora in his tracks for a good few seconds; all he can think about is how stupidly _pretty_ Riku is.

Kairi notices his distraction, taking the chance to aim the beach ball right at his distracted self and landing a picture-perfect hit on his head. She cackles like a witch when he gives her a betrayed look; Riku, the traitor, laughs even harder than her.

“You’re gonna _laugh_ at me? Oh, you _asked_ for this!” Sora exclaims, shoving Kairi underwater and elbowing Riku’s ribs in retaliation.

Their scuffle is stopped by Daichi’s voice, who calls them from the shore with a volleyball in his hands, pointing to the net set up not too far from where he is. Said sight is not uncommon in the many beaches around Destiny Islands, with most of them having a net stashed away somewhere, waiting to be taken out.

Sora and Daichi play against Riku and Kairi for a few rounds, yelling about whether a point counted or not with wide smiles on their faces. When Aiko and Hoshi join them, it turns into a bloodbath, no matter how they divide the teams up -- parents vs. kids, boys vs. girls, random draw, it makes no difference: Aiko and Hoshi are in it to win, forcing Sora and Riku to rise to the challenge they present.

Sora and Riku had to get their competitiveness from _someone_ , after all.

Lunch is a loud affair, especially when the cookies Aiko had prepared are revealed. Afterwards, the kids go back to the ocean for a while, just to enjoy the water -- with Kairi looking every inch a tourist in her sunglasses and strawberry-patterned swimming tube.

Sora jumps onto Riku’s back eventually, clinging to him like a koala with arms around his neck and legs around his waist. He takes a deep breath in anticipation of Riku’s next move: submerging both of them, in the hope that Sora will have to let go to catch his breath.

Sora laughs when they break the surface. “That’s not gonna work, Riiikuuu,” he crows, self-satisfied.

Riku clicks his tongue. “Was worth a try.”

His tall best friend walks further into the water, past where Sora and Kairi would have needed to start floating. Sora rests his cheek on the side of Riku’s head and enjoys the breeze, aware of Kairi floating serenely right next to them. Her red, mostly dry hair whips around her head with the wind, but she pays it no heed.

“I missed this,” Sora confesses, just loud enough for his best friends to hear. Kairi half-smiles, still staring at the horizon.

“It’s home,” Riku sighs, sounding wistful. They bob up and down with the building waves, but just a little; out here, the waves that will crash and shape the shore are just bumps in the water.

“Yeah,” Sora says, squeezing Riku’s shoulders. “It is.”

They stay there for what feels like a small eternity, just enjoying each other’s company and the breeze in silence. Kairi turns to them at some point, lifting up her sunglasses.

“You wanna go back?” she asks.

“Sure,” Riku shrugs. Kairi passes him her glasses and Sora takes hold of her tube as she submerges for a couple of seconds, holding her nose shut. She comes back still inside the tube, accepting her glasses back with a quiet ‘ _thanks’_.

“I’m ready now,” she says, pushing her newly-wet hair away from her face. Riku copies her actions, bringing Sora along for the ride as expected.

They make a beeline to where their parents are conversing excitedly, swiping an unopened parasol and setting it up near the shore, where the tide will start to roll out soon. Kairi brings a towel to lay on, but Sora and Riku shrug and plop down onto the sand proper; after a lifetime spent on the beach, they are no strangers to the eternal presence of sand in everything they own.

Sora looks at Riku and finds his friend with his eyes closed, probably already on the edge of sleep. He chews on his lower lip as a way to burn off some of his frustration, hating the fact that just a few hours of barely strenuous activity has become enough to bring Riku to his knees. He remembers the days in which they’d run and spar until the sun disappeared over the horizon, when Riku would be nowhere _near_ as tired as he is now even after a full day of constant movement.

Kairi touches his arm. “What’s wrong?”

Sora glances at Riku again to make sure his friend is truly dozing off, studying the rhythm of his breath for a moment. He scoots closer to Kairi, just to be safe.

“I just hate seeing him like that,” he whispers. Kairi purses her lips in sympathy and puts her arm around his shoulders, tucking him against her side.

“Me too,” she admits, equally as quiet. “He’s always so strong and steadfast that it’s kinda weird to have him be the one needing our support.”

Sora huffs, taking fistfuls of sand as a grounding action. “But he’s still just as stubborn as he’s always been,” he says through gritted teeth. Kairi chuckles.

“He wouldn’t be Riku otherwise,” she says, brushing sand off of Sora’s hair.

He sighs. “That’s true. But I’m still gonna be mad at him.”

“Sounds fair to me,” Kairi hums, giving his shoulder a squeeze. Then, she grins deviously. “Now, why don’t we take advantage of his vulnerable state to bury him in the sand?”

“That’s evil,” Sora grins back. “I love it.”

By the time Riku wakes, Sora and Kairi have already covered his legs up to the knee, creating a little moat around him. He gives them a displeased glare that only makes them stifle their laughter.

“Attacking your defenseless friend; I see how it is,” Riku grimaces, meaning to rub one of his eyes before realizing that his hand is also covered in sand, so he just lets it drop back down.

“You snooze you lose, Riku,” Sora singsongs, pushing a few more handfuls of sand onto Riku’s left thigh.

“You should know better than to show vulnerability around us by now,” Kairi shrugs, her eyes shining with mirth.

“Oh sorry, I forgot that I should never trust the two of you, ever,” Riku’s mouth curls into a smile.

“That’s right,” Sora nods, dropping more wet sand onto Riku’s stomach. “Now lie still and be one with your name, _Riku_.”

His friend lets out an ugly snort but complies, watching Sora and Kairi work for a few minutes before dozing off again.

“We’re so lucky to have taken the parasol,” Kairi comments some time later, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the sun. “We’d be baking if we hadn’t.”

“Crispy humans,” Sora nods, laughing at Kairi’s shudder.

They look up just in time to see the adults walking towards them, pausing to chuckle at the half-buried Riku.

“Why am I not surprised?” Aiko smiles, giving Sora’s hair a gentle ruffle.

Riku opens one aqua-colored eye. “Because they’re little demons.”

“And we’re supposed to buy the idea that you aren’t one as well?” Hoshi fires back with the precision of a mother, wiping the sand away from Riku’s forehead to lay a kiss there. “We know you too well for that.”

Riku fakes a sigh. “Always worth the try, Mom.”

Aiko passes their beach ball from one hand to the other, bringing their attention to it. “Well then, since the three of you have decided to take some time off, the adults are gonna have their fun,” she says with the grin Sora’s entirely aware he inherited.

“So you kids keep an eye on our stuff, alright?” Daichi nods, petting Kairi’s head for a moment, making her grin up at him.

“As if you even gotta ask,” Sora rolls his eyes, knowing this dance by heart. “Have fun!”

“We will!” Hoshi shouts over her shoulder, waving at the three of them from the waterline.

Sora and Kairi sit mostly in silence as they bury Riku up to the neck in sand. They take turns drawing on him with barely repressed giggles once they’re done, filling the sand with little stars, animal faces and badly-drawn keyblades.

When Kairi heads down to the shore to look for seashells, Sora takes the opportunity to draw a lopsided dream eater symbol right in the middle of Riku’s chest, tongue peeking out in his concentration. He makes sure Riku is asleep before doing it, of course, wanting it to be a surprise of sorts for reasons he doesn’t even attempt to make sense of.

The collected seashells are artistically placed around Riku’s head, like a crown or a halo -- Sora begs Kairi to go grab his gummi phone because he _needs_ to snap a photo of this, making Kairi rolls her eyes, complain that she feels like his maid, but ultimately do it since she knows Sora can’t go take it himself with Riku still sleeping. They circle around him, cackling like mad as they take close-up photos of every drawing, as well as of their friend’s sleeping face like the _terrible_ best friends they are.

They waste some time by talking in low tones. Kairi asks about Sora’s battle moves, something that he’s more than happy to talk about, describing some of the tricks he’s discovered over the years. Somewhere along these explanations, he absentmindedly starts to trace the lines of Riku’s muscles onto the sand, even if said muscles are hidden at the moment. When Sora looks up at Kairi, he finds her giving him a stare so _knowing_ that it brings him up short, causing him to stammer the rest of his skill description and blush for reasons unknown to himself.

“You’re so adorable, Sora,” she says in a sweet tone that has Sora breaking out in a cold sweat. He remembers her saying the same thing during their shopping trip, which only serves to confuse him more.

“What do you _mean_ by that!?” he asks, a bit helplessly.

“Nothing, honey,” she shakes her head, still using the same tone. “We should head back to our things; I doubt Riku is comfortable as he is,” she suggests, standing up. “We could set out a towel for him to nap on until we go back.”

Sora complies on autopilot, shaking Riku awake and leading him to the water to wash off while Kairi takes the parasol, her towel and Sora’s gummi phone back to where the rest of their stuff is. He briefly mourns not having been able to see Riku’s reactions to the art that had been created on him, but he reasons that they can just show him the resulting pictures later.

Daichi comes back after Riku falls asleep once more, shaking seawater out of his hair. He guzzles down half a bottle of water before sitting on the chair next to Sora, sending his son a wide grin.

“I married a monster,” he says in a bright tone. Sora laughs loudly and Kairi’s chuckles; both of them have heard this proclamation countless times before.

“Shouldn’t you know that you can’t go against them by now?” Kairi asks amusedly, pulling her sundress back on.

“I should, I should,” Daichi nods. “Alas, I can’t help myself.”

Kairi pats his shoulder. “I understand. I befriended two monsters, too,” she says, smirking at Sora.

“Wife and son, both monsters,” Daichi bemoans, throwing an arm over his eyes dramatically. “What am I to do, oh sweet Kairi?”

“It’s too late to back down,” Kairi shakes her head. “You must accept them.”

“Oh, but I do! I love them so much, I could not bear to go away.”

“Then your fate is sealed,” Kairi nods resolutely.

“Thank you for your words, m’lady,” Daichi bows his head.

Sora clears his throat, biting back a grin. “I resent being called a monster,” he declares.

Daichi turns to him. “My son, you are as competitive as your mother,” he says. “You have no choice in the matter,” he laughs.

“Rude!”

His dad rubs a few knuckles on Sora’s head without putting much pressure on it -- a familiar action that has Sora laughing with him.

“I was thinking we could go snorkeling at the reef later today,” he suggests, apropos of nothing.

Sora turns to him with wide eyes, an affirmative on the tip of his tongue, but then he looks at Riku -- sleeping peacefully, all curled up on one of their towels -- and simmers back down.

“Not today,” he says, a bit mournfully. “Riku is already tired, and if I say yes he’s gonna drag himself out there even if he’s dead on his feet.”

Daichi smiles ruefully. “He’s just as stubborn as Hotaru was,” he notes quietly, then cheers himself back up. “Another day it is, then, kiddo. Just let me know.”

“‘kay,” Sora smiles. “Thanks, Dad.”

“Anytime,” Daichi pats his shoulder. “Now I gotta head back, or else your mom and Hoshi might end up killing each other,” he jokes.

“Don’t I know that feeling,” Kairi pipes up, rolling her eyes fondly.

“I am so glad to have someone in this family that understands what I go through, little one,” Daichi tells Kairi, wiping a fake tear from his eye.

“Get outta here, Dad,” Sora laughs, pushing him away. Daichi runs back to the water, waving at them as his figure grows smaller.

Kairi sits next to Sora. “We got ourselves a pretty bullheaded best friend, huh?”

Sora snorts, crossing his legs. “Sure did. I get the feeling that he’s trying to hide how tired he is, but it’s like he forgets I’ve known him since forever,” he huffs exaperaredly.

Kairi smiles. “Yeah, I’ve been noticing that too. He just pushes himself on and on… Sometimes that’s admiring, but at the moment it’s just kinda sad.”

“I get it,” Sora puffs out a breath, sending a few strands of his hair flying away from his face. “I’d probably do the same if I were in his place right now, but I’m not... so I just get angry.”

“You know he won’t stop doing it unless someone confronts him,” Kairi says, patting his arm comfortingly.

“I _know_ ,” Sora tilts his head back. “It’s hard to decide when to do it, though. I don’t want to end up having a fight with him.”

She smiles again. “That’s alright. You’ll figure it out; you always do.”

He chuckles. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Kai.”

“You’re welcome,” she says, tucking herself against his side. Sora indulges her by putting an arm around her shoulders.

“What would I even do without you?”

“Die, probably,” Kairi replies in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Harsh.”

“Yet true,” she shrugs.

Sora elects to remain silent, knowing that there’s no use in arguing. Instead, he reaches out to Riku with his free hand, biting his lip until he manages to grab one of Riku’s hands to hold.

Right here and now, surrounded by his two best friends in the entire universe, feeling the ocean breeze rolling in and knowing his parents are having fun just a dozen meters away, Sora feels more at peace than he’s felt anywhere else in the universe.

x

Two peaceful days after their trip to the beach, Riku wakes up in his bedroom, blinking sluggishly at the white ceiling. A quick inventory of his own body lets him know that Sora is already up, which isn’t very surprising, considering how many hours Riku has been sleeping lately. That, of course, doesn’t make the experience any less weird; after all, Mama Aiko used to recruit him to wake Sora up all the time when they were kids, so a part of Riku still feels like _that_ should be the normal state of affairs, not the other way around.

He snaps to attention upon noticing unfamiliar noises, his body conditioned to become fully alert at the drop of a hat, ready to fight off any heartless that might have gotten too close. Shadows and Neoshadows moved without making a sound, but their chittering always gave them away once they got near enough.

Closer examination allows him to realize that the noises are just voices, which makes him relax slightly. One of them is Sora’s -- predictably -- but the other brings him up short again. The last time he woke up with Aqua speaking next to them, he and Sora had just had a near death experience, so Riku feels his sudden anxiety is warranted as he lifts himself enough to give his surroundings a harried onceover.

Sora, who is sitting cross-legged on Riku’s desk chair, notices him moving and smiles brightly.

“Hey there, sleepyhead,” he says, putting an arm over the back of the chair. “Seeing you wake up hours after I do never gets old,” he declares with a smug smile.

“Speak for yourself,” Riku retorts, sitting up properly. “I heard Aqua?”

“Good afternoon, Riku,” the woman in question greets, drawing Riku’s gaze to the gummi phone Sora had set on the desk, propped up by a few textbooks. He waves at her, unsure if she’ll be able to see the action.

“She’s teaching me how to knit!” Sora grins, lifting the ball of yarn and knitting needles from his lap.

Riku frowns. “When did you buy these?”

“I asked Mom to get them for me.”

“Oh.”

“We’re starting with a scarf cause she says it’s super easy,” Sora explains, swaying gently from side to side.

“Oh yeah? Who is it for?”

Sora sticks out his tongue. “Not telling!”

“Sure,” Riku drawls, letting out a big yawn shortly after.

He tunes out the rest of Sora’s conversation with Aqua out of politeness, reaching for his hairbrush to comb out the tangles his hair had acquired during the night.

“Hey, mini-me!” Sora calls, making Riku tune back in to his best friend’s words in slight confusion. It takes him only a second to realize the other must be referring to Data-Sora. “Could you make a new folder for the stuff Aqua is gonna send me?”

“Sure can!” Data-Sora agrees; Riku’s heart clenches inside his chest upon hearing Sora’s voice from before puberty.

“Thanks,” Sora says, abandoning his handiwork atop the table and going to sit next to Riku on the bed with a pleased smile.

Riku clears his throat. “So, what do you wanna do today?”

That is, apparently, the wrong thing to say. Riku watches, quietly baffled, as Sora’s smile is replaced by a frown. The way in which the other looks away to take a deep breath clues Riku in that Sora is not simply displeased -- he shows all the signs of being well and truly _angry_.

Riku scoots away from his best friend, bracing himself for an explosion before he even opens his mouth. “What’s wrong?” he asks, quiet and hesitant.

Sora pushes off of the bed with a huff to pace around Riku’s bedroom, hands sinking into his brown locks as he moves. Riku knows that to mean Sora is pulling on the reins of his own anger, working to bring it down to a more manageable level.

“You know, there’s something that’s been bothering me for the last couple weeks,” Sora starts, visibly trying to put his thoughts in order. “It took me some time to put my finger on what it was exactly, but now that I’ve noticed it I just can’t _stop_ noticing it,” he narrows his eyes, still pacing around.

Sora stays silent for a long minute -- time enough for Riku’s organs to rearrange themselves inside his torso, desperate for a way to burn off some of the nervous energy he’s producing.

“Yeah?” Riku says, once he can’t stand the silence anymore, his leg almost bouncing in anticipation. Sora snaps his head up, as if remembering he needs to actually speak rather than just _think_ what he means at Riku.

“I’m always the one suggesting stuff for us to do. I can’t think of a _single time_ since we got back to the Mysterious Tower that you said you wanted to do something. You’re always just going along with whatever I decide,” Sora accuses. Riku’s left leg twitches. “I asked Kairi and she’s noticed it too, so I’m not going crazy here.”

“Sora…”

The other barrels through as if Riku hadn’t even opened his mouth. “And that’s not all! Don’t you think that I haven’t noticed that you never ask for a break, or say that you’re tired, or that we should head back home or to our room or whatever. I think you’re more exhausted than you wanna show, but you forget that I’ve known you since I was born and I _know_ how you work,” he stresses, pausing in his pacing to give Riku an unyielding stare. “I don’t like it. I don’t like that you’re trying to play this off and I don’t like that you’re just going along with my ideas all willy-nilly. This isn’t like _you_ , Riku.”

Riku lowers his head until his fringe covers most of his face, grabbing fistfuls of the bedcovers in an attempt to ground himself. With how fast his heart is beating, one would think he’s in the middle of a fight, not sitting painfully still in the safety of his own bedroom.

Sora sighs, making his way back to the bed to sit next to Riku again. “I’m sorry,” he apologizes, setting a hand near Riku’s, but without having them touch. “I think that was kinda heated. I’m just so- so _worried_ about you, Riku.”

“I’m sorry,” Riku apologizes as a reflex, gulping down air like a half-drowned man. His hand twitches.

Sora huffs in muted displeasure, lowering himself to catch Riku’s eyes. “What are you apologizing for, you dummy?”

Riku glances up, uncertain. “For worrying you?”

“I don’t want you to apologize, I want you to tell me what’s _wrong_ ,” Sora says earnestly.

Riku gives him an aborted shrug. “I don’t know,” he lies. Sora crosses his arms.

“If you’re gonna lie, then at least try harder.”

“I just--” Riku stops himself, gritting his teeth.

Sora leans forward, expectant; Riku resigns himself to airing out the thoughts he’s been shoving down for the past two weeks.

“I’m… holding you back,” he says at last, feeling every word scrape at his throat and teeth on the way out.

Sora’s frown is immediate. “What do you mean?”

“Because of this thing with our hearts and the dream eater link, you’re stuck with me,” Riku blurts out. “You _always_ have to be at my side, so you can’t go have fun by yourself -- we need to take the link’s range into account at all times, which is made even worse by the fact that I can’t stop _sleeping_ , so you end up missing out on everything! You barely hung out with the others at the Tower even though I _know_ you’ve been excited to finally meet them properly just because you always had to take _me_ into account.”

Riku’s stomach does a few more loops while Sora processes this. He tries not to squirm under the weight of Sora’s searching eyes.

“Do-- do you seriously think you’re being a _burden_ to me?” his friend asks, scrunching up his nose as if the word has left a bad taste in his mouth. “You do, don’t you? Riku, that’s unfair _and_ not true at _all_.”

Riku curls in on himself. “But it is,” he argues. “It’s my fault that all of this happened, isn’t it?”

Upon hearing this, Sora throws caution out of the window and cups Riku’s head with both hands, tangling his fingers into the silver strands and forcing Riku to look at him head on.

“Don’t you _dare_ take the blame for this,” he says with blazing eyes and a voice simmering with anger. “If we’re gonna point any fingers in this situation, it’s gonna be at me, because I was the one that misused my powers and made all of you look for me for three whole months. But I know you’re gonna contest that so we’re just gonna throw blame all the way out, do you hear me?”

When Riku diverts his gaze and tries to lean away, Sora holds firm, giving his hair a little painless tug.

“No, you’re not gonna escape from this with a shrug and a smile, Riku. I’m not gonna let you.”

Riku sighs, staring resolutely at the covers. “I hear you,” he says begrudgingly.

“Look at me when you say it,” Sora insists. Riku bites his lip for a moment before looking up.

“I hear you,” he repeats.

“Good,” Sora exhales, letting go of Riku’s hair and allowing his hands to slide down to Riku’s shoulders.

“And I don’t mind,” he adds quietly. “Going along with the things you want to do, I mean.”

Sora glances up, asking the sky for patience. “It’s not about _minding_ , Riku. You deserve to spend time doing the things _you_ like too.”

“We like a lot of the same stuff,” Riku argues.

“But not all!”

Riku huffs, turning his head away. Sora’s hands burn him like brands, still hanging onto his shoulders. 

Oh, well. He’s already opened the box -- might as well spill it all out.

“It’s the least I can do,” he whispers.

“The least you can do is _take care of yourself!_ ” Sora frowns. “You’re not making me happy by doing this, you know! How am I supposed to enjoy myself when I know you’re dead on your feet and just putting up with it?”

Riku’s heart squeezes inside his chest. He had failed to consider such a thing in all his time spent on those negative thought spirals, so now that it’s been pointed out, he feels kind of stupid.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I hadn’t thought about it that way.”

“Of course you hadn’t,” Sora rolls his eyes, sounding mildly fond despite his frustration. “Plus, I don’t need to _be_ out and about to have fun, you sandhead,” he adds, smiling indulgently when Riku frowns in confusion. “You’re my best friend, remember? You can’t be best friends with someone you don’t enjoy the company of.”

Riku fidgets with the covers. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Sora nods. “Even if we weren’t stuck together, I’d still be spending, like, half a day with you. That’s what we’ve been doing since we were kids and I don’t plan changing that anytime soon,” he declares, puffing his chest proudly. Riku snorts.

“How could I forget my tail,” he teases, referencing the many times in which their parents said Sora was Riku’s tail, what with how he was always following the other around.

“Exactly!” Sora grins. “So don’t think like that anymore, okay? _Tell me_ when you’re feeling tired, and don’t just go along with everything I say, or else I’m gonna suffocate you in your sleep,” he says, still smiling, thumbs drawing circles on Riku’s skin. Riku laughs out loud for the first time since he woke up.

“Not like that would be very hard to do at the moment,” he raises an eyebrow.

“Yep. You’re at my mercy,” Sora nods. “So, promise me you’ll try?”

Riku takes a deep breath. “I promise.”

Sora smiles bright enough to outshine the sun. “Thank you,” he says, letting his hands trail down Riku’s arms until they’re holding his wrists. “I’m totally gonna hold you to that.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Riku half-smiles.

“Good,” Sora exhales. “It’s already afternoon, so Mama Hoshi is obviously at work, but she left us some lunch ready.”

Riku winces. “Did I keep you from eating?”

“Nah, I had a late breakfast, I’ve only started to get hungry just about now,” he shrugs. Riku sighs in relief. “Afterwards, what do _you_ want to do?” he asks encouragingly, gently squeezing Riku’s wrists.

Riku frees one of his hands from Sora’s grasp to scratch the back of his head, not at all surprised that the other has started making sure Riku sticks to his promise so soon.

“Just stay at home for now, I guess? We can find stuff to do, there’s probably some games we haven’t played yet.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Sora grins, bouncing in place happily.

Riku smiles in response, body _and_ heart feeling a little lighter. Sora has never been able to let matters be, and while sometimes that can be annoying, there are moments when his persistence is exactly what Riku needs to be able to iron out his thoughts or get out of a funk, so Riku had been forced years ago to admit that it wasn’t all bad.

Sora’s enthusiastic chattering about what Riku’s mother had left for them forces him out of his own head and into the present, so Riku puts those thoughts away to stand up, content to prepare himself to spend a quiet day at home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sora and Riku will attract stares from the rest of the population pretty much until they die. It's the consequence of having disappeared for two entire years, and coming back so changed; they're not the same boys that they were when they left, and the islanders can see that. There'd be a lot of talk about _why_ they disappeared and where they went for so long (I don't think Destiny Islands has, like, any _other_ islands), and the fact that they were two teenage boys (and best friends for their entire lives) when that happened probably doesn't help some of the nastier rumours :x But they don't care about it! They're bigger than this world now, it's true, but it's still home, they still love their parents and they'll never be able to abandon it.  
> In the topic of me not thinking that the world has any other islands, this is a mindfuck in waiting, my dudes. I'm a bit of a compulsive worldbuilder at times; I started thinking about how Destiny Islands would work and I got brain freeze. How are there cars there? How are there _department stores???_ How would they have the level of production and like, resource extraction to maintain our idea of society??? How could there be an university there, when the islands probably don't have enough people to warrant one?? I don't know. I don't want to think about it, I am looking away and suspending my disbelief. And yeah sure I know we could just alter their lives to make it more realistic but too much realism is No Fun!  
> Yes, I had Sora draw the dream eater symbol on Riku and yes, I gave him a (seashell) crown. I'm a hoe. I can do whatever I want.  
> Okay, so. I started plotting out the romantic progression for the boys these days and there's some stuff I wanna point out for y'all to keep an eye out for. You'll notice that in this chapter, Sora thinks of Riku's appearance in pretty objective terms, without any real personal opinion meshed in. He's pretty, he's handsome — those are just statements, just something purely aesthetic. You'll also notice I haven't had Sora thinking Riku is _attractive_ ; I see that as something more subjective, and that's easier to slide into Sora realizing that he, Sora Kingdomhearts, is attracted to his best friend, Riku. I'd talk more about this (I have a lot of Thoughts) but it kinda feels like I'd be spoiling it a bit, so I'm gonna keep my mouth shut ;x  
> I feel like Kairi and Daichi would bond a lot over how crazy their friends are/how they are the Only Sensible One. It helps that Daichi kinda sees Kairi as his little girl, since he had a son instead. He and Aiko helped Hoshi a lot when Hotaru (Riku's dad) died, and grew even closer because of it. Parent rights, y'all.  
> It only occured to me while I was writing this chapter that Data-Sora should have Sora's pre-puberty voice. I'm gonna pretend here that his voice only changed after his year asleep, so in Re:CoM he should stil have his baby voice. Again, I can do whatever I want.  
> Look. I love the "shrug and a smile" line and you have to pry it from my cold dead hands, okay? I just remember Riku shrugging and smiling after saying he can walk on the Dark Shore, only to collapse not even 2 minutes later. That's Significant, y'all.  
> I'm a sap and this author's note is too long. I regret neither of those things.


	8. Chapter 7

Being back on the Destiny Islands fills Rikuto with a strange, uncomfortable feeling that is too intricate for him to untangle with ease. For starters, he isn’t sure that he can even say that he’s _back_ , since in reality, he had never set foot on this world before today. _Riku_ had -- he had spent fifteen years exploring every corner and crevasse he could find alongside Sora -- but Rikuto isn’t Riku; or so he has been telling himself for the past three months.

It’s hard for that distinction to mean something, however, when everything around him is still painfully familiar. Even though it’s the first time _Rikuto_ has been on the Islands, he can still navigate it with his eyes closed, so much so that he leads their little entourage to Riku’s house without even needing to think about it, walking past shops he knows the history of and people he recognizes automatically. He hadn’t lived that life, but it’s his to remember all the same.

When Hoshi opens the door to Riku’s house, both of them freeze. Rikuto has been doing his best to convince himself to put the past behind; to make something completely new and unique with the second chance he’s been given; but that hadn’t stopped him from missing the only home he’s ever known; from missing his _mother_.

Hoshi forces out an awkward laugh when she notices the five others behind Rikuto, opening the door and stepping aside to let them in.

“I’m sorry, where are my manners?” she says, ushering them inside. “I’m Hoshi, Riku’s mother. You must be Sora and Riku’s friends!”

Terra bows his head slightly. “Thank you for having us, ma’am.”

“Oh, it’s my pleasure,” Hoshi waves it off. “Would you like something to drink? Sora, Riku and Kairi are in Riku’s room, I can call them down if you’d like. Aqua, Terra, Naminé, Vanitas, Rikuto and… Ventus, right?” she bites her lip, looking at each one of them in turn.

“That’s right,” Ventus grins, giving her a little wave. “It’s nice to meet you!”

“There’s no need to get us anything,” Aqua smiles. “May we go upstairs to see them?”

Hoshi gestures to the staircase. “Of course! It’s the second door to the right.”

Aqua, Terra and Ventus say their thanks and split from their group, making a beeline for Riku’s room. Hoshi turns to the remaining three, smiling at all of them.

“What about you three? Would you like anything?”

“We’re fine,” Naminé replies shyly.

“Well, then, feel free to take a seat in the living room! I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me,” she says. Rikuto and Naminé nod their gratitude, though Vanitas follows them in complete silence.

Being inside this house is akin to a torture to Rikuto. He keeps noticing and cataloguing all the little things that set it apart from the version in his memories -- like how some of the pictures on the wall had changed, or how the table’s centerpiece is new. He studies the room again and again, unable to stop himself.

“You’re thinking too loud,” Vanitas tells him in a matter-of-fact tone. Rikuto chuckles mirthlessly.

“Yeah, I know.”

“We could go outside if you want,” Naminé suggests, even quieter than usual. She looks smaller, too, curling in on herself as she is; Rikuto has a pretty solid idea as to what she’s protecting herself from.

“It won’t be any better,” he shakes his head.

Vanitas looks around with an arched eyebrow. “So this is where Dawn Boy grew up, huh?”

“Yeah. Half his time was spent here, the other half in Sora’s house,” Rikuto replies. Vanitas hums noncommittally.

“How quaint.”

“It’s a pretty house,” Naminé notes, looking to lighten the mood a little.

It _is_ a nice house, having been well-kept over the years by Hoshi’s and Daichi’s efforts, but to Rikuto it just feels like a memory trap. Everything around them has a memory attached to it: the carpet where Sora, Riku and Naminé used to lay on when they were drawing, the TV in which they used to play videogames in, the couch where they’d sometimes fall asleep on.

But that’s not right. Naminé was never there, no matter what his mind tells him; moreover, _Riku_ is the one in those memories, not Rikuto.

He is well aware that Naminé still feels guilty for having altered his memories to such an extent. He doesn’t really blame her for having done so -- it wasn’t like she had a _choice_ \-- but in times like these, when he is reminded anew that she was never a part of his childhood, or that he can’t trust everything that his mind sprouts off, a part of him can’t help but resent her for it.

It’s something they’re both working on, at their own pace.

Vanitas, meanwhile, has no ties whatsoever to this place. He studies their surroundings with vague interest, snickering at the photos of Sora and Riku throughout their childhood, so Rikuto decides to focus on him for the duration of their stay, if only to give himself some peace of mind.

None of them had quite wanted to visit Destiny Islands today. Vanitas, in particular, would have been _more_ than happy to stay behind and hide small unpleasant surprises all over the castle for Aqua, Terra and Ventus to find later on, but Naminé and Rikuto felt a bit weird at the prospect of being in the Land of Departure without its original residents. Thus, the other three traded their keyblade gliders for a gummi ship, ferrying them here as well.

Sora and Riku had asked Aqua to visit, citing a wish to attempt to dive into their own hearts again -- or so Rikuto overheard. It’s been two weeks since they all left the Mysterious Tower, which they probably judged to be a long enough time to recover from the fiasco that their last try had been.

Rikuto hears Hoshi walking towards them before he even sees her, recognizing the sounds of the old floorboards under her steps. She smiles at them a little nervously and Rikuto straightens his spine in response.

“Would you mind if I talked with Rikuto for a moment, kids?” she asks.

“Not at all.” Naminé says amicably.

“You don’t even need to return him,” Vanitas smirks, snorting when Naminé swats his arm.

Rikuto accompanies her to the kitchen with stilted movements, watching as she fills a pot with water and sets it onto the stove.

“I’m sorry if I’ve made you uncomfortable,” she says, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. “I just felt that it’d be good to talk with you a little. Is that okay?”

“Of course,” Rikuto replies, working on autopilot.

“I’m glad. The boys told me a little about your situation -- about how you have a lot of Riku’s memories, how you were made as a replica of him. I won’t pretend that I understood all of it, but what I _did_ understand made me think a lot.”

Rikuto exhales slowly, willing his muscles to relax. “Yeah?”

“You remember me, yes? And Hotaru and Aiko and Daichi?” she asks, waiting for Rikuto to nod. “I couldn’t help but wonder if you missed us. If you still considered us your parents. Oh, and you don’t have to say anything, alright? But when I opened the door and saw you today, for a second I thought that my baby had come home,” she confesses quietly. “You look just like Riku did when he disappeared. It was a shock to get him back so changed,” she laughs wetly. “Seeing you brought that back to the surface, I suppose.”

Rikuto’s breath stutters. “I’m not him,” he says, a little more forcefully than he’d like. Hoshi smiles sadly.

“No, you aren’t -- and I don’t want you to be,” she reassures him. “But that doesn’t mean we have to be strangers to each other.”

Hoshi notes that the water she’d set out is boiling, so she takes the pot off the stove and pours it into two mugs, setting a bag of Rikuto’s favorite tea inside both of them.

“What... do you mean?”

“A part of me still feels like you’re supposed to be my son,” she replies. “Not Riku, but my son all the same. So if you’d want to consider me your mother… I’d accept you without hesitation.”

Rikuto clenches his fists, looking away resolutely. “I can’t live here in the Islands.”

“I understand, and I’m not asking you to,” Hoshi shakes her head, passing him his mug. Rikuto sits on one of the stools surrounding the kitchen island, letting his hands be warmed by the ceramic before he takes a few sips. “But I still want to be there for you, if you’d be okay with that. I want to know how you’re doing, help you whenever I can, get to know you,” she smiles.

“I don’t know who I am,” Rikuto whispers. He hates the tears that insist on gathering in the corners of his eyes.

“Oh, sweetie,” Hoshi frowns, voice filled with maternal affection. She reaches out to him, then stops herself for a beat before asking: “Can I hug you?”

Rikuto nods hastily, holding his breath as she walks around the kitchen island to gather him in her arms. They say that smell is a sense that is usually tied to your strongest memories -- Rikuto can’t help but agree, surrounded by Hoshi’s familiar scent. He breathes her in, willing the tears not to fall, comforted by her steady embrace and the hand she uses to pet his hair with.

He draws back some time later with a sniffle. “Sorry,” he says, averting his gaze.

“There’s no need to be sorry, honey,” she smiles. “We all need a good cry every now and then. Aiko and Daichi walk around with their hearts on their sleeves and it hasn’t failed them so far,” she laughs.

Rikuto smiles as well. “Sora too.”

“Yes,” Hoshi huffs in amusement. “He’s their son through and through.”

“Yeah… Thanks, M--” he cuts himself off, turning his head away to hide the blush that tinges his cheeks at the slip.

Hoshi grins brightly. “You can call me Mom, sweetie, I don’t mind,” she encourages him.

“...Thanks, Mom,” Rikuto whispers, still blushing.

“You’re welcome, my son,” she says. Rikuto’s heart makes a weird leap inside his chest. “Now, why don’t you take your friends for a swim? Sora and Riku told me that not all of them have been on a proper beach before, and we don’t know how long the others will take with whatever they’re doing.”

Rikuto hesitates. “We don’t have any spare clothes.”

Hoshi laughs. “Oh, that’s not a problem! You had to see the amount of clothes Aiko bought for them last week -- I’m sure we can find something that would fit.”

“What about Naminé?”

“Well, she appears to be about Kairi’s size… I’m sure we can ask Kairi to lend some of her clothes. Could you go ask her to come down?”

“Sure,” Rikuto says, promptly ignoring Vanitas’ calculating stare as he passes by the living room on his way upstairs. He knocks onto the door of Riku’s bedroom, forcibly turning off the section of his mind that tells him it’s weird to knock on the door of your _own_ room. Kairi is the one to respond, luckily enough.

“Yes?” she asks quietly.

“M-- Hoshi wants to speak with you,” he says, swallowing the impulse to call Hoshi his mom in front of somebody else so soon.

Kairi steps back to speak to the others. This gives Rikuto a view of the bed, where Sora and Riku both lie, apparently asleep. He remembers that diving is almost intrinsically tied to sleep, then wonders how weird it’d be to try to doze off with four people watching you.

Kairi closes the door gently on her way out, then proceeds to bound down the steps in a way that belies how at ease she feels in this house. Those moments still bring Rikuto up short every now and then, even though it’s been getting better: he keeps having to remind himself that Kairi _does_ belong with Sora and Riku, even if his false memories tell him otherwise.

Rikuto lingers in the living room while Kairi goes into the kitchen to talk to Hoshi. Naminé looks up at him -- obviously curious, but not quite willing to speak up.

“We’re gonna spend some time at the beach,” Rikuto tells his two friends.

“ _What_?” Vanitas asks, scrunching up his nose.

“But we didn’t bring any clothes,” Naminé frowns.

“We’re gonna borrow some,” Rikuto shrugs. “That’s why Hoshi asked me to get Kairi.”

Vanitas clicks his tongue in displeasure. Naminé still looks unsure.

“But…” she bites her lip, her voice almost inaudible. “I don’t think I’d be comfortable in a bikini…”

“We can tell them that,” Rikuto reassures her. “C’mon,” he tilts his head in the direction of the kitchen.

Naminé follows him reluctantly, catching Hoshi and Kairi just as the latter starts to head back upstairs. Hoshi grins at them, gesturing for them to come closer.

“Kairi is going to look for something for you boys to wear and then she’ll head back to her house to find something for Naminé,” she tells them. “I offered to look through the boys’ clothes myself, but she refused; I guess she wants to protect little old me from what’s happening up there,” she smiles ruefully.

“I’m sorry,” Naminé says automatically. Hoshi chuckles.

“Oh no, child, don’t apologize! I know very well that those kids don’t tell us everything they’ve gone through and it doesn’t surprise me in the least. They don’t want their parents worrying -- but they forget that we’ll worry over them no matter what,” she winks.

In the ensuing silence, Rikuto encourages Naminé to step forward with a nod.

His friend takes a deep breath. “Ma’am, I’m sorry to bother you, but I don’t know if I’d be comfortable wearing a bikini,” she says, hands clasped firmly in front of her.

Hoshi smiles in understanding. “Too exposing?” she asks; Naminé looks surprised for a moment, then nods. “I get that. I can ask Kairi to bring you a dress as well, so you can just keep it on even when you get in the water,” she suggests. “But if you’re still opposed to the idea, you don’t have to get in the water at all, sweetie. If you want, you can even stay here with me and let the boys have their fun,” she laughs.

“I-I think a dress could work...” Naminé smiles.

“Great! I’m going to set aside a few snacks for you to take, so why don’t you come over to tell me what you like?” she claps her hands, leading them to the pantry. Rikuto pokes his head into the living room to have Vanitas come choose as well.

Kairi comes down a few minutes later with a bunch of clothes in her arms and Ventus in tow.

“I heard you guys were going to the beach?” he asks, bouncing on the balls of his feet 

“Yeah,” Rikuto shrugs.

“Cool! Can I come with? It’s kinda boring up there,” he scratches his cheek.

Vanitas snarls -- a common occurrence -- but Naminé smiles. “Sure,” she nods, always willing to work with others.

“I brought something for him already,” Kairi says. “You’re all generally the same size Sora is now, so I grabbed some of the new clothes for you. I tried to pick stuff that’s similar to what you guys usually wear,” she explains, handing each of them a bundle. “I’m gonna head home now to find something for Naminé, but I should be back in about fifteen,” she shrugs, then turns to Naminé. “Any requests?”

Rikuto leaves the girls to their talk, pointing Ventus to the kitchen and heading to the bathroom to change. After putting on the borrowed clothes and stowing his own away, he is forced to commend Kairi’s choices -- they _do_ look like something Rikuto would pick on his own.

He has to bite back a teasing grin upon seeing what Vanitas got, however. It’s clear to anyone who spends more than three days around Vanitas that he wears dark colors almost exclusively, with a heavy emphasis on black and red. Sora, however, is almost the exact opposite; sure, he _does_ wear a lot of red, but outside of the clothes the magical fairies had given him, Sora’s wardrobe is what one may consider a rainbow, with very little black thrown in. As a result, Vanitas gets red swim trunks and a _sky-blue_ t-shirt -- a sight that nearly sends Rikuto into a laughing fit.

Once Kairi is back and everyone has changed, they lather on sunscreen, pick up the supplies Hoshi had prepared for them and head out to the nearest beach. It’s not as pretty nor calm as the spot Rikuto remembers from Riku’s childhood, but the proximity to Hoshi’s house makes it easier for the others to get a hold of them when it’s time to leave.

Ventus grins brightly when they come within sight of the ocean. He turns to heckle a grumpy Vanitas, accusing the other of being afraid of the water -- a jab that has the desired effect of Vanitas running after Ventus to beat him into the ground for even suggesting such a ridiculous thing. They barely pause to take off their shoes, heading straight to the water for a fight that has both of them screaming: Ventus in glee and Vanitas in displeasure.

Rikuto considers warning them that they need to give the sunscreen some time to set or else it’ll just be washed away, but discards the idea with an evil smirk. They’ll survive a little sunburn.

He points Naminé towards a good spot for them to set up their single parasol, laying out a towel for her to sit on.

“You should wait for a bit before you head into the water,” he says, riffling through their bag. “You’ll probably get sunburned super easily, so it’s best to wait for the sunscreen to set in properly.”

Naminé frowns a little. “It has to set?”

“Yeah,” Rikuto chuckles. “Otherwise the water will just wash most of it off and you’ll get little protection,” he explains. Naminé looks at where Ventus and Vanitas are still splashing around vigorously.

“I see,” she says with twinkling eyes.

Ventus and Vanitas are still bickering by the time they join back up with the other two. Ventus had figured out which of Vanitas’ buttons he could push pretty early on -- maybe because of the latter’s origins? -- and took great joy in riling him up at every available opportunity. Vanitas retaliated by setting up booby traps around the Land of Departure’s castle in places where he knew only Ventus, Aqua and Terra would come across them, forcing the three of them to remain ever vigilant.

It wasn’t bad as it sounded, really. Ventus knew when to back down and Vanitas’ pranks were geared to be inconvenient rather than actively harmful -- a way to entertain himself in that big, empty castle.

Rikuto hears someone calling his name all of a sudden, turning to scan the shore. He finds Selphie jogging towards them, waving happily.

“Riku!” she smiles. Rikuto freezes up, realizing he had instinctually responded to the name. “It’s been so long-- woah! You look… different,” she stops short once she gets close enough to get a good look at him. Rikuto reasons that she must have seen Riku -- the _real_ one -- around the island in the past few days.

“I’m not Riku,” he tells her, his voice surprisingly steady. She frowns in a mixture of confusion and bafflement. “My name is Rikuto,” he corrects.

Selphie tilts her head. “But…”

“He already told you he ain’t Riku, so what the hell is your problem?” Vanitas drawls, wearing his fiercest scowl. Selphie lets out a little _‘eep!’_ , staring at Vanitas with even wider eyes.

“Are you... related to Sora?” she asks him, a little amazed. Rikuto intervenes before Vanitas can even open his mouth, knowing that the other won’t take kindly to Selphie’s questions.

“Yes. Yes he is,” he says, scrambling for an acceptable explanation. “Distantly. We’re from another island,” he adds, wincing internally at how lousy his solution is. Selphie studies him with furrowed brows for a moment, then shrugs, deciding to believe Rikuto.

“Huh. So you met when they disappeared?” she questions. “That’s so cool! You look just like Sora and Riku from the past!”

Rikuto forces a smile. “Yeah.”

“Well,” she starts, glancing at the four of them in turn with an awkward smile. It’s pretty obvious that the force of Vanitas’ glare is succeeding in making her uncomfortable. “It was nice to meet you all! I hope to see you around again!” she bounces. Rikuto and Ventus nod at her, which is all the acknowledgement she needs before fleeing from Vanitas’ murderous aura.

Ventus and Naminé are quick to strike up conversation, hoping to dispel the heavy atmosphere Selphie had inadvertently left in her wake. Vanitas continues to fume in silence, watching the horizon.

Rikuto scoots closer to him. “You didn’t have to do that,” he says in an undertone. He knows Naminé and Ventus would be unlikely to eavesdrop on purpose, but he’d rather be careful.

Vanitas stares at him impassively for a beat. “I know,” he exhales, smoothing his features into his usual levels of derision.

That’s the end of _that_ conversation, but Rikuto has been studying Vanitas closely enough to be able to read in between the lines of his actions by now. He knows that part of the reason Vanitas scared Selphie off was because Rikuto was uncomfortable with her being there -- the rest of it was just his general personality and aversion to the presence of others.

Sometimes, Rikuto was fooled into thinking that Vanitas and Sora would act similarly in a given situation by the former’s appearance. He _knows_ Sora, after all; Rikuto has about twelve years of memories’ worth of knowledge on the way Sora deals with pretty much _everything_. So when he can’t quite figure out how Vanitas would react to an event, he can’t help but tap back into those memories to fill in the blanks.

Doing such a thing obviously results in more misses than successes. Sora, like Rikuto had commented with Hoshi earlier, lives with his heart on his sleeve: he is empathetic, earnest and affectionate, with a borderline pathological inability to let matters be if he thinks he can help in any way. All this made it fairly obvious why Sora had netted so many friends in his travels -- his charisma just pulled people in, much like a star pulls in planets, asteroids and coments.

Vanitas, on the other hand, tended to purposefully repel anything that got near. Naminé had managed to worm under his apocalypse-level shields with the help of her art, which quickly became _their_ art; Rikuto had the help of their shared bitterness and time under Xehanort’s control -- direct or indirect -- to get him to the other side.

While Sora communicated with words, Vanitas did so with actions. He probably wouldn’t admit he appreciated Naminé’s company and respected her even under the threat of death, but Rikuto could see it in the way he interacted with her. He wasn’t _hard_ to read per se, not really, but doing so took patience and the willingness to look past what he chose to present.

Having Vanitas as a friend also helps Rikuto set himself apart from Riku. He can’t really imagine Riku becoming friends with _Vanitas_ ; if Rikuto is anything to go by, the potential for it to happen had been there at some point, but the way Riku had changed and matured in the two years after Rikuto’s creation had greatly altered the chances of it ever happening. This makes Vanitas’ friendship something _unique_ to Rikuto, unlike Naminé’s.

But while Vanitas is completely different from Sora in a lot of ways, there’s a thing they both share: their competitiveness. Ergo, Rikuto is able to coax him into having a race down the beach with a few surgically-precise pokes at his ego that leaves Vanitas seething. Ventus is all too happy to play referee for them, on the condition of him going against the winner and Naminé takes out her gummi phone to record plenty of videos of them, laughing as Vanitas curses up a storm.

Ventus notices Aqua and Terra walking towards them when they finally settle down to eat, waving at the two of them with a wide grin on his face.

“Hey,” Aqua smiles at the four of them, gently ruffling Ventus’ hair. “Did you guys have fun? Ven, you’re covered in sand!” she laughs.

“We did!” Ventus exclaims, then blinks at himself, brushing some of said sand away. “Must’ve gotten it while running,” he chuckles.

“Sand is just a part of island life,” Rikuto shrugs. “You get used to it.”

“Vanitas’ hair is full of it too,” Naminé points out, covering her smile with one hand. Vanitas clicks his tongue, giving his hair a good ruffle to get the annoying particles out.

“So, how did it go?” Ventus asks Aqua and Terra, his expression earnest.

“It went well,” Aqua hums. “We kept an eye on their vitals as they dived and it never dipped below normal, so that was good.”

“They aimed for a small section this time,” Terra adds. “Both of them are pretty tired after it, but nothing a good night’s sleep won’t fix,” he nods with a smile.

“That’s good,” Naminé sighs in relief.

“Do you want to stay out a little longer? Terra and I could wait for you in Riku’s house,” Aqua says.

Rikuto looks at the others, considering. They’d had a pretty good afternoon; all of them had gone into the water at some point, Ventus and Vanitas had had a lot of fun running around the beach -- no matter what the latter would say -- and it wouldn’t be long before the sun started to set.

“I think we’re good,” he says, looking up at the two adults. “Just give us a bit to finish eating and pack up our stuff.”

“ _Finally,_ ” Vanitas mutters, as if this trip had been some kind of unimaginable torture. Rikuto and Naminé share a grin at his dramatics.

“Alright,” Aqua nods, pointing to a nearby patch of grass before heading to sit there with Terra.

Rikuto finishes his snack first, setting out to collect their discarded t-shirts and sandals, putting the former in a plastic bag and the latter close to their parasol. He stays on the edge of the water for a moment, sinking slowly into the wet sand until his feet are completely covered, watching the waves and the distant horizon. For all that he’s decided he cannot live in this world anymore, it’ll always feel like home; the call of the seagulls and the sounds of the waves have been ingrained into his very bones, never to be erased nor forgotten.

Still, he turns his back on it all when Ventus calls his name, his _chosen_ name, walking towards the family he’s picked for himself. He takes the closed parasol from Vanitas before they start the walk back to Riku’s house, to drop off their borrowed items and wash the sand away.

Hoshi pulls him to the side and gives him a hug before they depart, patting his cheek fondly.

“Stay in touch, okay? You can always call Sora or Riku whenever you want to talk with me,” she tells him, tucking a lock of hair behind his ear.

“Okay, Mom,” Rikuto smiles, his voice nearly a whisper. “I will.”

“Good,” she nods. “Now go -- your friends are waiting for you.”

Naminé gives him a small smile when he finally comes out. “Ready?” 

Ventus, Aqua and Terra are a few feet ahead, talking excitedly about something Rikuto doesn’t quite catch; Vanitas stands close to Naminé, wearing his usual scowl, arms crossed loosely.

Rikuto exhales. “Ready.”

x

Sora throws himself back onto the bed with a huge sigh. “Why do we feel so tired? This didn’t happen the last time,” he complains, adjusting himself so that he can watch Riku nod off on his desk chair.

Kairi clicks her tongue at him. “Yeah, you just almost _died_ , last time,” she reminds him exasperatedly.

“Yeah, well. Being this tired still sucks,” he says.

“Welcome to my new life,” Riku mutters, keeping his head up with the help of one of his arms.

“Can’t we just go back to sleep?” Sora implores Kairi. His friend frowns at him.

“You should at least wait until you’ve had dinner,” she argues. “Something tells me you guys will be sleeping ‘til tomorrow morning after this.”

“This is torrrrture,” Sora huffs. Riku hums in agreement.

“Well, wallowing in it isn’t gonna make you more awake, so c’mon! Up, up, up you go,” Kairi puffs her chest, pulling a groaning Sora to his feet before moving to do the same to Riku. “Let’s go downstairs.”

Sora walks down the steps with his eyes barely open, trusting his familiarity with the house and his battle instincts to keep him from slipping and landing on a heap at the bottom. Kairi herds them to the living room, depositing them on the couch next to Hoshi, who smiles fondly at them.

“How are you boys feeling?” she asks with a chuckle.

“Sleeeepyyyy,” Sora protests, letting his head fall to her shoulder. “Kairi’s a slave driver, Mama Hoshi.”

“She is,” Riku exhales. Hoshi laughs at the exchange.

“The only way to dispel her worry is to let her take care of you two,” she says.

“Could you maybe convince her that the care we need is sleep?” Sora pouts.

“Not a chance; she knows more about what’s going on with you than I do,” Hoshi pats his head.

“Sorry,” Riku whispers from her right side.

Hoshi sighs. “It’s okay, I get it. There’s a lot I don’t understand about what you boys have been through and you want to protect your parents from it. Just don’t keep us in the dark, alright? We worry too.”

“I know,” Sora says, shifting so that he can hug her loosely. “We don’t really get all the details about what’s going on with us either.”

“Well, isn’t there anywhere you could get more information?”

“There is,” Kairi says, setting a tray of tea-filled mugs on the coffle table then going back to turn the kitchen’s lights off. “This all stems from something that happened to their hearts, and there’s a group of researchers that study the heart in one of the worlds we’ve visited.” Noticing the tension gathering in Hoshi’s posture, Kairi hurries to finish her sentence. “Aqua encouraged us to go there,” she explains, taking one of the mugs for herself. Sora reaches for the tray with an inaudible groan, passing a cup to Riku as well.

Hoshi’s hold over her two boys tighten in response to Kairi’s words, almost as if she could protect them from the rest of the world if only she held them tightly enough. “R-researchers? Hearts?!” she stammers worriedly, looking between Sora and Riku with a deep frown..

Sora fidgets, not knowing how to respond without making things even worse. Hoshi’s breath hitches for a moment, her grip becoming somewhat painful, but Sora would never dare to squirm away; if holding them close to her chest will help her come to terms with everything that’s happened with her children, Sora will gladly stay there for _hours_.

“Right,” she whispers, letting out a long sigh that seems to deflate her. She takes her time to process the meager morsels of information she’s been given, her grip loosening as she comes to terms with it. “If that’s the case, then why didn’t you visit them before coming home?”

“We weren’t sure they could help either,” Riku replies. “No one’s ever heard of something like this happening.”

“The two of you always _did_ get involved in all sorts of new and unpredictable situations,” Hoshi laughs ruefully, petting Riku’s head to calm herself down.

“We should visit them soon,” Kairi says, staring off into the distance. “We didn’t go before because they were still pretty tired, but they’re better now.” 

Sora feels Hoshi go tense again, pressed to her side as he is. “How long would you stay there?” she asks with a steady voice.

“Probably less than a day,” Riku reassures her. “They have all kinds of machines to help them.”

“We gotta pay a visit to Leon and the others too,” Sora grins. “It’s been so long!”

Kairi raises her eyebrow. “You didn’t go see them in this last adventure?”

Sora scratches his cheek with a wince. “Uh… no?”

Riku snorts. “From what you told us about them, they’re not gonna be happy about that,” he says, hiding his smirk by taking a sip of his tea.

“Hahah, yeah… Oh man,” Sora grimaces. He can already picture Leon’s frightful scowl, Yuffie’s whining and Aerith’s quiet disapproval.

He’s screwed.

“I’ve changed my mind,” he announces cheerily. “Under no circumstances can we go to Radiant Garden,” he nods resolutely. Kairi laughs outright while Riku snorts again.

“This from the guy that was all happy over the thought of introducing us to his friends,” Riku tells Hoshi, who watches them all with a muted twinkle in her eye.

“I still am!” Sora insists. “They know how hard I looked for you, and I really want you to meet them,” he pouts. “Kairi too, of course -- she should get to see the world she came from!”

Hoshi perks up. “What do you mean, the world where she came from? Did you get your memories back, Kairi?”

“Oh, right,” Kairi sighs. “Not really, no. But apparently, I met Aqua when I was a kid, in Radiant Garden,” she explains. “She said she put a charm on me, so that if I were ever in danger, I’d find my way to someone with a bright light to protect me,” she touches her necklace. “That’s why I ended up here, on the Destiny Islands.”

Hoshi relaxes, smiling gently at Kairi. “I’ll have to thank her for it when I see her next, then. So Sora and Riku’s light guided you here?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m glad. Have you ever been back there? To your birth world?”

“Yes, but…” she hesitates, glancing at Riku and Sora, who both sink a little deeper into the cushions. “Only to a very small part, and I wasn’t conscious for most of it. But, Sora knows it pretty well! He’s got a lot of friends there.”

Riku gives her a small grin. “Sora has a lot of friends _everywhere_.”

“Sorry, how could I forget that our best friend is Sora, the befriender _extraordinaire_?” Kairi laughs.

Sora crosses his arms. “You guys are just jealous!”

“We don’t need to be jealous,” Kairi raises an eyebrow. “If you have your way, you’ll just make them our friends too!”

“Well, _yeah_...” Sora pouts.

“Don’t think you’re getting out of paying a visit to Radiant Garden, though,” she wags her index at him. Sora sulks.

“Leave him be, Kai. He’ll get over it,” Riku smirks. “I bet you twenty munny he’s gonna get so excited that he’ll forget all about this and drag us to the gummi ship himself.”

“No, I won’t!” Sora protests, pouting when Hoshi chuckles at him.

“Deal,” Kairi says, extending a hand to shake Riku’s.

“You’re both traitors,” Sora hisses.

Kairi pats his arm. “You still love us.”

“Not for long,” he insists.

“Suuuure,” Riku drawls, to the sound of Hoshi’s laughter. “Pull the other one, it’s got bells on it.”

“Well, kids,” Hoshi claps, gently untangling herself from the boys’ reach. “As entertaining as this is, I gotta figure out what we’ll be having for dinner. I trust the two of you will be awake for it?” Hoshi asks Sora and Riku, raising her eyebrows.

Sora groans, setting his empty mug on the coffee table before he dramatically lets himself tip sideways until his head is on Riku’s lap.

“I guess,” he says at the end of this little display, reaching out to poke Riku’s belly button and receiving a slap on the head for it.

“Sure, Mom,” Riku half-smiles. “We’ll do our best.”

“Good boys,” Hoshi coos, bending down to press a kiss to Riku’s temple and ruffle Sora’s unruly spikes. “Shouldn’t be long, so how about you just watch some TV in the meantime?”

“I’ll keep them awake,” Kairi promises with a glint on her eyes, snatching the remote from the coffee table before Sora and Riku can even think of reaching for it. Hoshi laughs as Kairi starts to flip through channels.

“That’s my girl,” she winks. They share a conspiratory grin. “I’m counting on you, Kairi!”

“Oh, it’ll be my _pleasure_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had meant to tease y'all about how the boys would be getting visits in the author's note of the last chapter, but I forgot, like a dumbass. I never expected to care as much about Rikuto as I do now, and yet, here we stand, in a chapter that has a solid 3k of his pov. Figures. I guess all Rikus are good boys. Playing around with his feelings, figuring it out and stuff, it's super fun. His situation is just so unique! Poor boy needs some therapy asap.  
> Sand gets everywhere. I'm a prequels hoe for Star Wars and the entire time I wrote that part, I had Anakin's complaints about sand playing on loop in my mind. If you have never seen it, I suggest you google it, it'll stick to your brain Forever™️.  
> You guys have no idea how much time I spent going back and forth with by beta over Hoshi's reaction to the researchers part >_> I hope it ended up fine, because I've definitely looked at it for far too long.  
> (ETA, 16/08/2020: I messed with it a little more without a Deadline™️ looming over my head and I think it sounds better, now. Even if it doesn't, that's how it's gonna be for the rest of time.)  
> Well, now that I've given the Lost Trio some attention (and a little to the Wayfinders too), it's time for the Destiny Trio to visit Radiant Garden, which my brain still insists on calling Hollow Bastion, r.i.p. me. Just so that y'all don't feel like I'm neglecting the Twilight Town gang, they'll be making an appearance!! ...in a few chapters. I like to spread the love around as equally as possible :3  
> Hope y'all are staying safe and as sane as possible!


	9. Chapter 8

The visit that Sora, Riku and Kairi pay to the scientists at Radiant Garden goes better than expected. They spend three hours inside the Castle’s lab, answering a myriad of questions while Ienzo and Vexen study the readings that appear on their screens. All in all, it’s considerably less invasive than Riku had imagined it to be.

They leave the lab with their heads _drowning_ in new information. Kairi, especially, had voiced inquiries from start to finish, wondering about the purpose of a certain piece of equipment or the consequences of this or that examination. Riku did his best to keep up with their conversation, but eventually he had to follow Sora’s lead and just tune the entire thing out.

Which, of course, is not to say that Riku is leaving the lab having learned nothing. Ienzo had a lot of interesting theories to share with them once his fascination with their situation simmered down, and Riku will be turning them over in his brain for the weeks to come.

For starters, the team had been able to put some actual _numbers_ to the damage their hearts had sustained. After listening to Sora and Riku recount everything that had happened up to that point, Vexen suggested Sora move out of range so that they could get an accurate reading of Riku’s heart without the link’s interference. 

Sora, however, rejected this idea _vehemently_ , deadset in his decision to not cause Riku any unnecessary pain. Much better at reading the atmosphere than his senior, Ienzo quickly decided that such a thing would not be needed, guiding Sora to stand as far away from Riku as he dared before making some adjustments to their equipment so as to hopefully make up for the link’s presence.

The results took no time at all to be processed. They revealed that Sora was missing 14,4% of his heart; Riku, meanwhile, had lost a staggering 38,7% of his own. Sora and Kairi had both gone pale at that last number, turning to stare at Riku with dread in their eyes as Ienzo listed out all of the possible risks of having a heart _that_ incomplete.

Vexen agreed with Aqua's theory that the pieces Riku gave Sora served as a scaffolding for Sora to rebuild his own pieces, adding that they'd likely be destroyed by this process -- which in turn would force Riku to rebuild them from scratch. He hypothesizes that that's one of the reasons behind Riku's tiredness; what he's doing is much more energy-intensive than what _Sora_ is doing, after all.

As for why _both_ of them had been equally drained following the last healing session they did, Ienzo postulates that their dream eater link is to blame, theorizing that it must have split the burden of healing between them so as to not overwhelm Riku.

And while the researchers had not been able to provide them with any insight on what further consequences they could encounter, they _had_ been able to point out the most probable cause of Riku’s continuous fatigue. Ienzo thinks that his heart and their link must be sending consistently mixed signals to the rest of his body, creating a conflict that keeps him from getting better. It’s likely that his heart knows it’s incomplete, so it tells the body to rest in order to recover; the link, however, still allows him access to the missing pieces, thus preventing any unconscious rebuilding from happening and creating a loop that could only be broken by further healing.

Riku is snapped out of his reverie by Sora latching onto his arm.

“I think my brain is leaking out of my ears,” he mutters, staring straight ahead with dead eyes.

Kairi takes a deep breath, reaching up to tug on a lock of hair. “Yeah, that… was a lot. Now I kinda wish I had taken notes.”

Sora shrudders. “Please don’t. This already felt too close to being back to school _without_ someone taking notes,” he whines. Kairi sticks her tongue out in a childish display that has Riku smiling.

“At least we know more than we did three hours ago,” Riku shrugs. “Even if it’ll take us three _weeks_ to absorb it all.”

“I refuse to think any more about this ‘til tomorrow at _least_!” Sora exclaims.

After taking another left, they finally arrive back at the Castle’s entrance; all of them more than happy to be out in the sun and fresh air after a morning spent inside a stuffy, sterile lab. Sora immediately runs to the nearest flower bed, making little noises of appreciation as he studies the diversity of the plants that lie in front of him.

It’s amazing to see the difference two years of effort from Sora’s friends have done to this world. Part of Riku still wants to call it Hollow Bastion rather than Radiant Garden, but the changes that have been made -- especially since the return of the former Nobodies to the Castle -- allow him to see the truth in the world’s original name.

Riku watches Kairi for a moment. His second best friend can barely stand still, eyes drifting from side to side constantly, studying the place that had been her first home. She looks like a spring that has been coiled up as tight as it possibly can -- just waiting for the right moment to release all the energy she’s holding in.

“You okay?” he asks quietly, briefly touching her shoulder. Kairi smiles gratefully up at him.

“I’m fine. Or I will be, eventually. It’s just... _surreal_ to finally get to see something I’ve been hyping up to myself for so long,” she laughs nervously.

“Yeah,” Riku smiles. He had felt something similar upon seeing this world for the first time, after the Destiny Islands fell to the darkness -- only, it had been buried under the bitter disappointment of not having Sora and Kairi by his side. “Talk to us if you need to, alright?”

“I know,” Kairi exhales slowly, mustering up a smile. “Thanks.”

Their little bubble is popped by Sora approaching them with a wide grin on his face and a dozen flowers in each of his hands.

“Here,” he says proudly, presenting Kairi with a collection of pink and red flowers. “And this is for you,” he tells Riku, showing off a bunch of white and yellow flowers instead. “It’s kinda funny that I found flowers for both of your hair colors _and_ your favorite colors,” he laughs.

“Aww,” Kairi coos. “These are so pretty! I don’t think I’ve ever seen these before.”

“Maybe they’re exclusive to Radiant Garden?” Riku shrugs.

“What are we supposed to do with them, though?” Kairi raises an eyebrow. “It’s not like it’d be practical to just keep holding them for our entire stay here.”

“You have pockets, don’t you?” Sora rolls his eyes. “Use them!”

To demonstrate, he takes back half the blossoms he had given to Kairi, fiddling with the stems for a couple of seconds before he places them inside one of the pockets of her dress, adjusting them until he’s sure they won’t fall out when she walks.

“See?” Sora preens.

“I guess that’s one way of dealing with _that_ issue,” Riku hums. Sora quickly settles the rest of Kairi’s flowers in her other pocket, moving on to Riku immediately after. Not even two minutes later, both of Riku’s jacket pockets have soft blossoms spilling out of them.

“There!” Sora nods, pleased with his handiwork.

“Where to next?” Kairi inquires.

“Merlin’s house,” Sora grins. “That’s where the Restoration Committee pretty much lives at. I don’t know exactly where that is in relation to where _we_ are right now... but if we still can’t find our way after walking around some, I’ll just climb a building or something,” he shrugs.

“Of _course_ ,” Riku drawls, dry as a desert. Sora pointedly ignores him.

Throughout their impromptu exploration, they pass by little hidden alleys, boarded-up houses and a fair amount of buildings in the midst of being repaired. Sora has a lot of stories to tell about the friends they’re heading out to meet, as well as the adventures he’d had in Radiant Garden during his second journey, which works both to fill up the silence _and_ to give Kairi some of the information she so obviously wants about her birth world.

Riku’s bet with Kairi had ended in what they considered a draw: Sora hadn’t _quite_ dragged them to the gummi ship that morning, but it had been a near thing, involving plenty of whining and sulking as well as pleas for them to get ready faster. Riku had given Kairi ten of the proposed twenty munny as a compromise.

Sora’s rambling reaches a fever pitch once he recognizes that they’re heading in the direction of the marketplace. Riku has to pull him to the side more than once to stop him from bumping on a passerby with his wild, uncontrolled gesturing -- something that Sora doesn’t even seem to notice he’s doing. Kairi shares an exasperated smile with Riku over it.

A wordless noise of glee is the only warning Riku gets before Sora latches onto his wrist and drags him forward, leaving a handful of flowers in their wake.

Riku curses, adjusting his pace to match the other’s. “Sora! What--”

“Leon! Yuffie!” Sora shouts, waving his free hand with borderline magic energy.

The two people in question turn towards the source of the ruckus pretty much immediately, their battle instincts nudging them into a fighting stance on autopilot. They relax upon realizing who, exactly, has called their names.

“Sora!!!” Yuffie yells in what Riku would guess to be surprise and a little bit of elation, nearly dropping the bag of vegetables she’s holding. Leon gives them a wide-eyed stare -- which is an _extremely_ unusual expression on him, if what Sora told Riku is anything to go by.

Sora laughs breathlessly upon coming to a stop near his friends, wearing a grin so wide that it threatens to split his face in two. It doesn’t take long for Yuffie’s shocked smile to become a mighty frown, prompting Sora’s grin to scurry back into hiding.

“Where have you _been_ for the past six months?!” Yuffie exclaims, crossing her arms as best she can with the bag on the way. Sora takes a step backwards, scratching the back of his head with an awkward smile that fools no one.

“We’ve seen a gummi ship land near the Castle multiple times, but you never came to visit,” Leon accuses with narrowed eyes.

“Ehehehe,” Sora laughs with a grimace. “I’m sorry? And that gummi ship wasn’t mine!”

“Sorry is not enough!” Yuffie huffs, wagging her index in front of Sora’s face. “You have a lot of explaining to do, mister, and, boy, it better be a good one!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Sora sighs. “But!! I’m here now!! And I wanted to do this at Merlin’s house, but eh, I’ll just do it again later--” he cuts himself off with a wave, then turns to gesture at Riku and Kairi, the latter of which stays a few paces behind the boys-- “these are my best friends! Riku and Kairi!”

With those simple words, Sora shifts the spotlight away from himself onto said best friends. The weight of the stares Riku gets from them has his hairs standing on end, _especially_ from Leon; Riku has to remind himself that those were the people that had been _there_ for Sora during his first and second adventures. They had supported Sora when Riku had been too blinded by the power of darkness -- then shame, later on -- to be by his side.

Kairi, on the other hand, gets a much more friendly onceover -- or at least what passes for friendly with Leon, anyhow.

“It’s nice to properly meet you!” Yuffie smiles cheerily. “Sora has told us a lot about you two,” she adds, giving Riku another _look_.

“I can say the same,” Kairi chuckles. “It’s been a while.”

“The princess of light, right?” Leon arches an eyebrow.

“That’s right,” Kairi hums.

Yuffie turns on Sora again. “Don’t think you’re home free, mister,” she narrows her eyes.

“I absolutely won’t,” Sora insists. “Do you still have more shopping to do? Or can we head to Merlin’s?”

Yuffie shares a look with Leon. “Eh, we got most of what we need,” she shrugs, gesturing to some of the bags Leon is carrying. “We should be good for the week.”

“Cool!” Sora grins, grabbing Riku’s right wrist again and sprinting towards Merlin’s house, not even bothering to make sure Kairi, Leon and Yuffie are following suit. Riku feels Yuffie’s stare land on Sora’s hand around his wrist, just before Sora has the two of them taking off.

Sora opens the wooden door to the magician’s house enthusiastically, letting it hit the nearby wall with a loud bang. He sets his hands on his hips as he surveys the interior of the building.

“I’m back!” he announces proudly, puffing out his chest.

“Sora!” a brown-haired woman -- Aerith, Riku’s brain informs him -- exclaims, putting down the book she’d been holding to go hug Sora. “It’s been so long!”

“I know!” Sora nods, still smiling. “I’m sorry for not visiting more,” he adds awkwardly.

“We know you’re a free spirit,” Aerith laughs, brushing a few locks of hair away from Sora’s face. “Just make sure to stay in touch from now on, alright?”

Sora introduces Riku and Kairi again, pulling the latter forward with a pleased grin, ecstatic to be able to show off his friends.

“Is Cid home?” Sora asks once the introductions are done with. They step into the house properly in order to allow Leon and Yuffie to pass through.

Aerith blinks. “He left on an errand, but should be back a couple of hours after lunch. Why?”

“I wanted to ask him a favor for Kairi,” Sora explains, laying a supportive hand on Kairi’s upper back. Riku sees Kairi swallow with some difficulty.

“I want to know if we can find my family,” Kairi says with her hands clasped in front of her so as to hide how much they’re shaking. “I was born in this world, but I haven’t been here since I was four, so I don’t remember a thing about them.”

Aerith’s expression softens in sympathy. “I can ask him to see if he can find anything about them in the town’s databases,” she reassures Kairi. “Since there isn’t much we can do about it now, why don’t you come in and sit with me in the kitchen? I was just waiting for Leon and Yuffie’s supplies to start making lunch.”

“It’s your turn?” Sora bounces on the balls of his feet. “Oh man, I can’t wait!”

“You can start explaining yourself in the meantime,” Yuffie suggests, tapping her foot impatiently.

Sora winces. “It’s, uh… a long story,” he sighs.

“I don’t have any other errands today, so we’ve got aaaaall day,” she says, making herself comfortable on one of the dining chairs.

Riku and Kairi graciously allow Sora to do pretty much all of the explaining. While Sora had been able to let the Restoration Committee know that he had made it back to the Destiny Islands with his friends safely after the fight with Xemnas -- with some help from the King -- that was the last time there was any communication between them. Thus, Sora starts his story with their Mark of Mastery exam and works from there.

The longer Sora talks, the more aggravated his friends become. They’re understandably upset that Sora set off to defeat the real Organization XIII without even telling them about it, insisting that they could have have lent a hand on Sora’s quest, in whichever way necessary. Moreover, if the Organization had decided to attack Radiant Garden again, they would have been _terribly_ unpreparedto face such a threat.

“But wait,” Leon narrows his eyes with suspicion. “You said the final battle happened three months ago.”

“Almost four, now,” Riku mutters to himself, but Leon still catches it.

“Four, then. So why have you waited all this time to visit?” he asks, studying Sora with unnerving intensity.

Sora stutters incomprehensibly for a minute, glancing at both Riku and Kairi. Riku feels himself deflate a little, remembering the despair of having Sora fade out of existence right in front of his eyes. Sora reaches out to take his wrist in a loose grasp yet again, thumb rubbing the back of Riku’s hand soothingly. From the corner of his eyes, Riku sees him do the same with Kairi.

Sora explains the circumstances of his own disappearance in a quiet, somber tone, relaying what the others have told him about the months he’d been away -- the dead ends, the frustration, the desperation.

“If we had known, we could have aided you in your search,” Aerith frowns sadly, momentarily abandoning the vegetables she’d been cutting. Sora shakes his head.

“I don’t think it would’ve made a difference. The only reason Riku found me in the first place was because of our link,” he says, letting go of Riku’s arm to briefly rub the center of his own chest.

“How does that work?” Aerith asks, smiling tentatively while picking her knife back up. “Your link, I mean. I never heard of anything of the sort.”

Sora chuckles quietly. “We hadn’t either! I don’t even know how we made it in the first place,” he hums, looking up at Riku.

“Just another Sora and Riku mystery,” Kairi teases, gently knocking Sora’s shoulder with her own.

“But how did he get you back? Didn’t you say your heart was damaged, Sora?” Yuffie tilts her head. Sora’s grip on Riku’s arm tightens.

“Riku gave me pieces of his own heart,” Sora replies. “That’s part of why we came here today -- to visit the researchers at the Castle and have them do a check-up on us.”

What follows is a stumbling explanation of their current situation: the damage their hearts have sustained, the fact that they can’t be more than a certain distance from each other, Riku’s exhaustion and their attempts at healing. Kairi chimes in to provide further details or rephrase something here and there, determination clear in her voice.

“I still don’t know why I’m not as tired as Riku, though,” Sora huffs. “I mean, yeah, I’m not missing as much of my heart as _he_ is, but it’s still unfair!” he crosses his arms. Riku snickers at his petulance.

“That’s because you weren’t paying _attention_ ,” Kairi rolls her eyes. “Ienzo explained that it was probably because you’ve been staying put with Riku, instead of going around like a madman. You couldn’t handle even two minutes of sparring with Roxas, remember?”

Sora groans. “I know, I know. I guess I _have_ been really quiet these weeks,” he mumbles. Riku pushes down the stab of guilt that he feels upon hearing this.

“Sora, quiet? I’ll believe it when I see it,” Yuffie grins. Leon chuckles.

“That’s right. Sora starts to bounce off the walls if he has to sit still for more than five minutes,” he teases.

“I do _not!_ ” Sora exclaims indignantly, starting a scuffle against Yuffie that has the girl shrieking in laughter and everyone else smiling.

Aerith waits until they’ve calmed down to ask another question. “How long should it take to heal up completely? I can’t imagine this to be a pleasant situation.”

“We don’t know,” Sora sighs.

Riku clears his throat. “Months, probably. Ienzo said that it’ll be super slow at first, because we don’t have a lot of energy to spare for it. What was the term he used, Kairi?”

“A positive feedback loop,” Kairi pipes in. “It means that the more they heal, the more energy they’ll have to heal even further. Which is good news!”

“Yeah!” Sora grins.

“But that’s mostly in regards to _my_ heart,” Riku says. “Sora is missing some of his as well, but they said it should probably heal on its own -- though more gradually.”

“Like how some of the Nobodies could regrow their hearts,” Sora nods.

“That’s great!” Aerith exclaims with a pleased smile. “I’m happy that you’ve managed to get some answers.”

“Me too,” Sora beams. “There’s still a lot we don’t know even now, but we can figure stuff out as we go.”

“That _is_ your specialty, Sora,” Leon shakes his head, prompting Sora to give him an irreverent grin.

“But enough about this!” Sora waves a hand through the air, as if physically brushing the subject away. Riku silently commends the fact that he’d lasted this long. “I’m tired of thinking about all that. We should figure out what to do after lunch!”

Leon half-smirks. “Why should we entertain _you_?” he asks in a teasing tone.

“Becaaaaause, I’m your friend and we have some newcomers to show around?” Sora argues, gesturing at Riku and Kairi. “I wanna see how everything’s changed while we were away!”

“Hmph,” Leon huffs.

Riku kind of tunes out their banter after that in favor of studying the house they’re standing -- well, _sitting_ \-- in. He had already noted the seemingly endless amount of books in the living room, but he has to admit to being surprised at seeing haphazard piles of multicolored books even inside the kitchen and dining area.

Sora takes advantage of the fact Kairi has started a conversation with the house’s inhabitants to lightly tap Riku’s calf with a foot, catching his attention. “You okay?” he whispers with a tilted head. “You’ve been quiet today.”

“I’m fine,” Riku responds automatically, huffing when Sora arches a skeptical eyebrow. “Really, I am. Just thinking.”

“You’re sure-sure?” Sora insists.

Riku shoves him away by the shoulder, laughing quietly. “I _am_ , you dork.”

“Good. I’m glad! I don’t want you to be uncomfortable in here,” Sora smiles earnestly.

Riku sighs. “I’m not uncomfortable around your friends,” he says, and he means it -- even if Leon has been giving him some scary _looks_ every now and then. Though, if Riku is being honest, those had diminished considerably once Sora explained their story.

“But there _is_ something bothering you,” Sora states quietly, reading the fine print hidden in between Riku’s words and the following silence.

“I’m just… I don’t exactly have good memories of being in this world,” Riku confesses, lowering his voice to a whisper even though the conversation Kairi is having with Yuffie, Leon and Aerith easily drowns out his words.

He feels _weak_ , almost, for being so agitated in this place when he was far from being the one to suffer the most in it. Sora and Kairi had gone through much direr situations than he did in this world -- a fair number of them by his own hand, even --, so what gives him the right to be uneasy when the two of them are taking it all so well?

Sora lays a comforting hand above Riku’s elbow. “I get it,” he whispers back. “But this isn’t the world from our first journey anymore. There are people and stores and _life_ \-- you just have to create new and better memories of it. Lucky for you, that’s basically what we’re doing today,” he says, sending Riku a small grin. Riku responds to it with an even smaller smile.

“Show us around then, oh trusty guide,” Riku snarks. Sora laughs.

“You’re back to teasing, that’s a good sign!”

“I can wipe the floor with you anytime,” Riku declares with feigned arrogance.

Sora sticks his tongue out at him. “We’ll see.”

Sufficiently appeased over Riku’s wellbeing, Sora waits for a lull in Kairi’s conversation with the others to check up on her as well, quietly making sure that she’s feeling alright now that her wish to see her birth world has become a reality.

“Riku?” Aerith calls, waiting for Riku to look at her before continuing. “Could you help Leon set the table?”

Riku steals a quick glance at Leon, who is already walking towards the cupboards. He knows a trap when he sees one, but there’s no real option other than facing it, so he shrugs. “Sure.”

Leon points out which plates he should grab with a quiet word. Riku waits for the other shoe to drop.

“It’s obvious you’ve changed in those two years since I’ve seen you last,” Leon says in an undertone. “You’ve hurt Sora in no small amount, but it’s plain to see that you care a lot about him -- if you didn’t, you wouldn’t have looked for him as hard as you did,” he continues, setting out the cutlery and cups in front of him. “However, if you ever hurt him like that again, you’d better be dead before we get to you.”

With those lovely parting words, Leon walks back to the table as if nothing had happened. Riku follows suit after a few seconds, handing out the plates wordlessly as Sora watches him with a heavy dose of scrutiny.

To be honest, Riku had been expecting a threat like that ever since they decided to finally visit Radiant Garden. While it _did_ send an unpleasant shiver down his spine, Riku is mostly just glad that Sora has found friends that care for him to the point of issuing said threats.

Sora is on his case as soon as he sits back down. “Leon threatened you, didn’t he?” he squints, leaning in.

“He did,” Riku confirms, smiling at Sora’s pout. “It’s fine, I deserved it.”

“ _I_ will be the judge of that,” Sora huffs.

“Don’t worry about it,” Riku laughs, rubbing his knuckles onto Sora’s scalp.

Sora blows a raspberry at him. “You can’t stop me!”

Their familiar banter is cut-off by Aerith proclaiming that lunch is ready. They arrange themselves in a line behind Aerith, waiting for their turn to serve themselves, then head back to the table to eat and talk about lighter topics.

Leon and Aerith tell Kairi what they know about Radiant Garden’s history, sharing tales of their childhood and early adolescence, before the world had fallen to darkness. Kairi absorbs it all with wide eyes and a curious mind, asking plenty of questions while laughing at all the trouble they got themselves into as kids.

Yuffie agrees to show them around after lunch, pointing out buildings that were repaired recently as they walk on the smooth cobblestone paths. Many of the townsfolk wave at her as they pass, and she has stories to share about them too: that woman had a garden in her backyard, which Aerith helped maintain; that guy sometimes gave the Committee free candy after the one time they fixed his roof; that kid is an _amazing_ climber.

All those little anecdotes help Riku create a better, brighter image of Radiant Garden. It would be impossible to change his associations to this world in a day, of course, but that doesn’t diminish the importance of starting it.

They find a bunch of kids playing ball in an abandoned plot of land, laughing and screaming as they do so. One of the older kids waves at Yuffie and invites her to join; Riku sees her mouth open to decline, apologetic expression already in place, but Sora beats her to the punch, accepting it _and_ dragging Riku by the arm to do the same.

The fact that Sora finds it easier to drag Riku with him _every time_ he wants to run off somewhere instead of curbing the urge to do so in the first place makes Riku snicker under his breath. He isn’t even surprised by it, really -- it’s just like Sora to do something like that.

They play ball for a good half-hour, sweat beading on the sides of their faces and on the small of their backs in response to the summer sun, their jackets abandoned atop a nearby crumbling half-wall. The kids share their water bottles with them when they take a break, talking excitedly over each other.

“You guys were pretty good!” a boy tells the three of them with a wide grin. There’s a tooth missing near the front, but that only serves to add to his charm.

Sora rubs his nose, grinning equally as wide. “Thanks, you weren’t bad yourself!”

“We’ve never seen you around before!” a brunette girl exclaims, staring at their clothes.

“They’re our friends! Honorary members of the Restoration Committee, visiting for the day!” Yuffie explains, playfully slinging an arm around Sora and Riku’s necks. Riku is a bit surprised to be included in the action, but he keeps it to himself, wondering if Sora’s plans to make all of his friends _their_ friends will work after all.

The children all make noises of wonder upon learning Sora, Riku and Kairi live elsewhere. The questions start just two seconds later -- a tidal wave of innocent curiosity that they allow Yuffie to mitigate as best she can, walking the fine line between satisfying their audience and keeping the World Order.

The four of them leave the kids not long after that, walking a few more blocks before deciding to head back to Merlin’s house.

“Living here seems nice,” Kairi comments with a bittersweet smile.

Yuffie looks around wistfully. “It is. It’s peaceful, now that the heartless are basically gone. There’s still a lot of work to do with the rebuilding and uh, a large number of people just… never came back, but… it’s home. So we do our best to take care of it,” she grins.

Kairi nods silently. Sora and Riku both move to comfort her at the same time: Riku with an arm around her shoulders and Sora with one around her waist, to account for their differences in height. She laughs quietly in response, putting her arms around them as well, and that’s how they walk back to Merlin’s house: all pressed together, stumbling over each other until they finally succeed in synchronizing their steps.

“It’s a pity the rest of our flowers were left in that lot,” Kairi sighs, glancing at her empty pockets.

“I still have some of mine,” Riku shrugs, brushing a few soft petals with his fingers. They had remained mostly safe in his discarded jacket as he played around.

“We can just pick more later!” Sora enthuses.

“Aerith knows how to make flower crowns, if you’d be interested,” Yuffie pipes up.

“Does she? That’d be super fun!” Sora whoops, raising the arm that is not around Kairi’s waist.

Upon entering the magician’s house, they discover that Cid has finally returned from his errand. He pulls Kairi aside, commenting that he had been just about to start combing through the databases and taking the opportunity to ask her some questions so as to help him narrow the parameters down. He guesses it might take over an hour to find anything solid, so the three of them recruit Aerith to head to one of the biggest gardens to pass the time.

Aerith shows them how to pick the right flowers to weave a crown, talking about things such as stem length and what techniques they can use. Though Kairi tries her best to stay focused, Riku notices how her mind wanders here and there. He decides she’ll be the recipient of the crown he’s making, wanting to cheer her up even if just a little.

Riku is attempting to figure out how to finish his creation when Sora drops the crown he had just completed on Riku’s head. Sora laughs brightly at his obvious surprise, sitting back down after having shifted to his knees so as to reach his best friend’s head.

Riku hopes his blush isn’t as visible as he suspects it is.

“Your favorite color,” Sora nods, looking quite pleased with himself. Riku takes this to mean that the crown atop his hair is yellow. “How’s yours going?”

Riku swallows with some difficulty, pushing the surge of _feelings_ down at the same time. “Can’t figure out how to close it,” he says.

Sora hums as he studies his best friend’s handwork, taking it from Riku to demonstrate how he’d done it. Riku nearly tunes out the entire explanation, his brain too focused on analyzing the way Sora’s fingers had brushed his as the other took the unfinished crown.

Riku ignores all the butterflies buzzing around in his stomach to place his now-complete crown on Kairi’s head. She smiles up at him then giggles, so Riku considers his mission a success.

“Now I _have_ to finish this one for Sora, or else he’ll be the only one without a crown and if that happens, he won’t let us forget it, _ever_ ,” she grins, snickering when Sora declares his agreement.

Once all three of them are crowned at last, Aerith tells them about the process of reviving the many gardens scattered throughout the town. A lot of people had contributed to that task, planting dozens of seeds and making sure they were all healthy -- a shared effort to recover what had once been the most distinct characteristic of their home.

As they talk, Riku begins to feel the effects of all the things they’ve done so far -- the examining, the walking, the interacting, the playing. They had woken up quite early to get ready, wishing to make the most of their visit, and this means Riku hadn’t slept as much as he typically would. Now that they’ve quieted down and stopped moving around so much, the annoyingly familiar exhaustion is finding the cracks in his armor, seeping in slowly but steadily.

He notices Sora giving him a hard look and sighs. “Maybe we should go back?” he suggests quietly, not wanting the girls to hear it as well. Sora relaxes, his smile wordlessly commending Riku for being more respectful of his own limits.

“Alright,” Sora nods, turning to Aerith to tell her he wants to head back.

They brush off the dirt from their hands and clothes before setting out, crowns still firmly placed on their heads. They are not the only ones with them either -- many of the kids that pass by them in this part of the town have one as well, or at least a singular flower tucked behind their ears.

Cid looks directly at Kairi when they walk through the door, quietly putting his conversation with Leon on hold to come closer. Riku sees Kairi stiffen at his side, her breathing picking up rhythm with every heavy step Cid takes in their direction.

“Do you want us to leave?” Riku asks her softly.

“Please stay,” Kairi pleads a little breathlessly. Sora and Riku both nod, accepting an understanding smile from Aerith as she closes the door behind them.

Cid leads Kairi to another room with a solemn expression, sparing only a quick glance to the boys. He tells her that he had found a family matching her descriptions on the old databases, from before the world fell to the darkness: grandmother, parents, and a child of about four years of age. Kairi’s hands start to shake at her sides, a glimmer of hope in her wide eyes as he tells her their names.

Said hope crumbles to ash only seconds later, however. Both parents had died a little over a year before the darkness came and the grandmother hadn’t returned to the world once it had been restored, which made the possibility of her having survived an unlikely one. Any other family members had passed away years before Kairi was born.

“I’m sorry, kid,” Cid sighs, laying a warm hand on Kairi’s shoulders. “I really wish we had better news to give ya.”

Kairi’s already fractured composure crumbles under the weight of Cid’s comforting hand. Her lip trembles, her shoulders shake, and her eyes fill with tears; Sora and Riku move in to hug her immediately, hiding her from the rest of the world as she mourns the loss of the family she barely remembers and will never have the chance to meet.

Riku rubs Kairi’s back as she gasps for breath in between her heaving sobs, her hands fisting Sora’s and Riku’s jackets in an attempt to keep herself grounded after such terrible news. They barely notice Cid leaving the room, allowing them this melancholy moment to grieve.

Sora directs them to a nearby sofa after a few moments, sitting on her right as Riku does so on her left. It takes her a few more minutes as well as many deep breaths to regain the ability to speak.

“I don’t even know why I’m c-crying so hard,” she sniffles, brushing away the tears that refuse to stop falling. “It’s not like it hadn’t crossed my mind that this... might happen, a-and I don’t even… I don’t even remember them!”

“Still, they were your family,” Sora tells her in a slightly chiding tone. “People you really looked forward to meeting; that you wanted to have in your life. That’s not nothing.”

“You’ve been looking forward to this moment for a long time,” Riku adds. “Even if you already knew this could happen, that doesn’t mean you didn’t have some hope that they might be still around, somewhere deep down. That hope isn’t there anymore -- so of course that would hurt.”

“You’re mourning what you could have had,” Sora says, drying off some of her tears with his glove. “So don’t try to pass it off as something that doesn’t matter. This was important to you and you have every right to be sad about it.”

Kairi nods shakily in response to their words. She continues to cry for a while longer, though doesn’t sob as much; slowly, ever so slowly, the tears fade into sniffles, then to the huge shuddering hiccups that usually follow a good crying session.

Around the time Kairi’s tears have dried and she’s only letting out the occasional sniffles, Aerith appears on the doorway, knocking on the wood to grab their attention.

“I made some chamomile tea for the three of you, if you’d like,” she offers.

All of them nod, so Aerith goes off to fetch a tray, placing it on the end table to the sofa’s right. She passes each of them a steaming cup, smiling gently at Kairi.

“Cid asked me to tell you that you can look through your family’s files, if you want to. It’s a standing offer, so you don’t need to decide it today,” she says. “It doesn’t have much in the way of personal information, but it’s still something.”

Kairi is silent for a long moment, staring fixedly at her cup. Sora and Riku watch her closely, ready to provide more comfort.

She takes a deep, long breath, then a sip of tea. “I want to do it,” she says resolutely.

“Are you sure?” Sora asks gently. Kairi nods.

“I want to learn more about them,” she turns her cup around in her hands. “Do the files have photos?” she asks Aerith.

“They do,” Aerith smiles. “I’ll tell Cid to pull them up; you can go check them whenever you’re ready.”

“Okay,” Kairi whispers. Riku rubs her back up and down in a soothing motion that has her leaning against him in response.

“Do you want us to go with you?” he asks her.

“No,” she sighs. “This is something I gotta do on my own.”

“That’s okay,” Sora gives her a small smile, brushing a handful of red strands away from her face before he takes her pink flower crown off. It looks a little worse for wear from their earlier group hug, but it’s still completely reusable. “I’ll keep this safe for you, okay?”

Kairi chuckles silently. “Thanks,” she says, reaching over Sora to deposit her cup on the end table.

She hugs both of them in turn -- a long, warm hug that the boys reciprocate without question. Sora even squeezes her a little, just to hear her laugh.

“Thank you for being here. Really. It means a lot to me,” she smiles bashfully.

“Of course!” Sora huffs out, sounding a touch indignant. Riku can’t help but feel the same; as if there was anywhere else they’d be rather than beside her.

Kairi picks her mug back up. “Well, I’m gonna go do it,” she exhales. “Wish me luck?”

“Good luck!” Sora grins. “And if you need us, we’ll be here.”

Riku smiles with a nod. “What he said.”

She exits the room with quiet steps, leaving Sora and Riku to sigh in her wake.

“That sucked,” Sora purses his lips.

“Yeah,” Riku ruffles some of his hair, taking care not to destroy the crown Sora had made for him.

Sora watches him for a long minute with a neutral expression. Riku is just about to ask him what’s wrong when Sora takes both of their empty cups and sets them back on the tray, scooting over to the other end of the sofa to leave a fair bit of empty space between them.

“You still need to nap,” Sora says in response to Riku’s questioning look. “So, come on! I think the sofa is big enough for you to be comfortable if you lay your head on my lap.”

Riku hates how warm his cheeks become at such a simple, innocent suggestion.

“We can go to the main room!” Riku argues, a little more forcefully than he’d like. “Then you can still talk with your friends while I sleep,” he adds in a steadier voice.

“Nah, they’ll get it,” Sora shakes his head. “There’s always next time, right? Plus, Kairi would probably appreciate staying somewhere quiet and peaceful when she comes back. I’ll wake you up when it’s time for dinner so we can go back home, like we planned!”

God, Riku hates it when Sora uses logic against him. He quietly admits defeat, passing his crown to Sora for safekeeping and adjusting his position on the sofa until his head lies comfortably on Sora’s lap. The wide smile he receives for doing so makes his heart speed up by about five hundred percent.

“Do you want me to stay quiet?” Sora asks, sinking both his hands in Riku’s hair.

Riku shakes his head minutely. “You can talk if you want to,” he hums, exhaustion forcing his body to relax even in a situation such as this. He can already feel the haze of sleep brushing against the edges of his consciousness.

“Did I ever tell you about the time I fought Oogie Boogie in Halloween Town?” Sora asks, clearly not even expecting an answer, but Riku hums a negative all the same. “Man, it was so annoying! There were these blobs all over that I had to destroy, and I spent _so goddamn long_ to find the last one…”

Lulled by Sora’s familiar voice, Riku closes his eyes and falls asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So _this _chapter was a little bitch to write at times! Spent a full day worrying about whether I was hitting the emotional beats with the right intensity and if i was being too infodump-y, how tasty. I had to create a _spreadsheet_ to situate myself in regards to the passage and time and how much of their hearts would be healed, week by week... But don't worry, I won't subject y'all to that and to all the frightening numbers in it lmao.  
> Oh, right. I realized these days that I have decided it's summer and thus no-school time in all the worlds, even though it should be around winter now, if we consider that the Twilight Town kids had just gone back to school after summer in the start of KH3... BUT this is my fic and I can fuck around with time however I want, so summer it is! Here where I live (in the area of influence of a rainforest) the rainy season happens in about December~April and the rest of the year is just warm and humid Hell, so Destiny Islands gets to share the same fate, YEET.  
> Riku's struggles to call the world Radiant Garden instead of Hollow Bastion is basically just me projecting. It keeps tripping me up >_> Also, Riku had that threat coming, y'all, and you can't change my mind.  
> Yet again, I yell DESTINY TRIO RIGHTS. They're all good friends and the boys' support meant a fuck ton to Kairi in here. I think it was important to have Kairi seek out this information and have a moment to grieve what could have been. Like I was telling my friends, she had been hoping for a reunion for a long time even if logic told her they could all be gone, and that door was shut on her face — that _hurts_ , man.  
> Had to sneak in that cutesy, gay lil moment to balance things out, and also because I'm a hoe and I do what I want. Fuck Oogie Boogie's blobs, I spent like over 10 minutes looking for the last one, I was so mad!!  
> Next chapter: secret!! >;3c__


	10. Chapter 9

Sora follows through with his promise to help Kairi train a few days later. The two of them -- plus Riku, obviously -- row out to the Play Island in the late afternoon, where there’ll be no one around to accidentally catch them wielding their keyblades.

They head for islet right away, dropping their single, shared bag at the base of the paopu tree. Sora and Kairi call on their keyblades to give a few experimental swings as Riku takes a few weights out of their bag to do his reps in silence. Sora grins at Kairi, pointing his keyblade at her teasingly.

“We can do a few slowed down spars,” he says, watching Kairi fall into a battle stance. “Should give me an idea of what you can do so I can help you train later.”

“You just don’t want me to kick your ass after you get tired in five seconds flat,” Kairi snarks. Sora laughs.

“That too!” He rolls his shoulder. “Want me to show you some of the moves I like?”

“Sure,” Kairi shrugs.

Sora keeps up some running commentary as he shows off, explaining what types of enemy each move is good against and a few of the ways enemies can counter it if he’s not careful. She listens with rapt attention, copying him when he tells her to, her flowery keyblade glowing bronze in the afternoon sun.

Riku cuts in here and there to add an extra detail or to make a correction, but mostly he just stays there in silence, moving from one exercise to the next. Sora knows that working out is basically meditation for Riku; it’s something that allows him to stop thinking for a while, so he can focus on what his body tells him instead. Sora gets it -- had felt the same in the midst of a few battles -- so he just leaves his best friend to it.

Plus, Riku had to get all those muscles _somehow_.

Sora exchanges a few blows with Kairi as the sun approaches the horizon, taking note of her balance, footwork, and where she focuses most of her strength. She was accustomed to using her small size and dainty appearance to her advantage, taking the openings those features provided her to land some clever hits, but Sora was _fast_ \-- he sidestepped her attacks and rolled away almost effortlessly.

Battling still wore him out, of course, but their slower rhythm allowed him to hold out for nearly two hours -- which in turn had him quietly wondering if the reason he collapsed so quickly while sparring against Roxas had been because he used magic. He and Kairi had decided before even stepping into the Play Island that there would be no spells allowed in their training matches for the foreseeable future, but maybe he could test this hypothesis at another moment.

The three of them decide to take a break at the same time, guzzling down some water while talking about their friends. Naminé and Ventus had both reported that their group was settling down quite well in the Land of Departure; Roxas, meanwhile, loved to complain about how creepy the Old Mansion on Twilight Town was with its underground secret passages, not to mention how _distant_ it was from everything. From what Sora could tell, Xion thought the same, though she mostly kept it to herself.

Sora watches on with interest as Riku stands from their spot at the base of the paopu tree to walk towards the center of the islet, taking a couple of deep breaths before raising his right arm in a position Sora knows all too well.

When Braveheart appears in Riku’s hand, Sora’s heart does a weird jolt inside his chest. It’s not an entirely foreign feeling -- summoning Kingdom Key always causes a similar sensation -- but it’s certainly strange to feel it and not have the familiar weight of his keyblade appear in his hands.

Sora’s heart _hums_ as Riku performs a few experimental swings. His best friend has a melancholy expression set firmly in place and Sora can hazard a guess the reason as he watches the keyblade slice through the air in much wider arcs than Riku usually prefers.

“What’s wrong?” Kairi asks at his side.

“It feels so _light_ ,” Riku murmurs mournfully. “There’s barely any weight to it.”

Come to think of it, Sora _had_ noticed Kingdom Key felt a little lighter than usual to him as well, though the difference had been small enough to be easily ignored. Sora feels sadness over Braveheart’s state only for a moment, forcing himself to think positive in the very next second.

“It’ll get better as we heal!” he says, pulling Riku down to throw an arm around his shoulders. “Riiiight?” he raises his eyebrows, almost daring Riku to say otherwise.

Riku huffs amusedly at his antics. “Yeah.”

“So,” Kairi stands up, brushing some sand away from her leggings. “I guess break time is over, huh?”

“You bet!” Sora grins toothily.

Sora and Kairi spar for another fifteen minutes with shared grins, slowly checking how it feels to fight each other. Kairi stops cold, however, when Sora uses a bit of flowmotion to stick to one of the palm trees on the edge of the islet, frowning at him petulantly.

“I wanna know how to do that too!” she pouts, dematerializing her keyblade to cross her arms. Riku chuckles quietly from his seat at the paopu tree.

Sora rubs the back of his head with a small laugh. “It’s something we picked up in the Sleeping Realm,” he explains. “I guess we just brought it over on instinct.”

“Then teach me!” Kairi exclaims with twinkling eyes.

“I don’t think you can learn it out here,” Riku grimaces. “Dream logic is weird.”

Sora perks up at the implication in Riku’s words, bouncing excitedly in place.

“So we should take you to the Sleeping Realm with us!” he enthuses, catching the attention of both of them. Kairi gives him a wide, pleased grin; Riku gives him a considering look.

“That could work,” Riku says, turning the thought over in his head. “We could guide her on the initial dive.”

“And then hopefully we’ll all stick together this time!” Sora puffs out his cheeks. “No more separate versions stuff.”

Riku smiles slowly. “Yeah, sounds good.”

“Oh man, I can’t wait to see my dream eaters again!” Sora does a happy little dance, then wags his index in Riku’s direction. “I’ll have you know, mister, that _your_ dream eaters were _very_ sad you hadn’t gone to visit them, last time I saw them,” he crosses his arms. Riku laughs bashfully.

“I know, I know. Everything was so hectic…”

Kairi looks between the two of them like someone watching a tennis match, lips curling up into an amused smirk.

Sora turns to her next. “You’ve never seen a dream eater, right? You’re gonna love them!! They’re all colorful and adorable and fluffy!”

“Not _all_ of them are fluffy,” Riku scrunches up his nose. Sora waves a dismissive hand at him.

“Eh, close enough!”

“How are we gonna do it?” Kairi tilts her head.

“Check with your parents if you can sleep over today,” Riku suggests.

“My bed won’t fit all of us, so we can lay out some blankets and pillows on the floor instead,” Sora grins.

“ _After_ you clean it all up,” Riku chides. Sora sticks his tongue out at him.

“Sounds like a plan,” Kairi smiles, taking off some of the hair clips that had kept her hair away from her face while training. “I’m guessing we’re done for the day?”

“Sure,” Sora hums. “Gotta get home and prepare stuff.”

“Hopefully that means cleaning your room,” Riku snorts, receiving a shove from Sora for it.

“If you keep this up on the boat I’m gonna throw both of you out,” Kairi announces, her voice deadpan. Sora and Riku both stand in attention, though a bit cheekily.

“Yes ma’am!” they say in unison. Riku grabs their bag and the three of them jog to the dock, laughing and kicking sand at each other.

x

Sora is very proud to say that Kairi’s first dive goes amazingly well. He’s never dived with other people before, but it turns out to be an interesting experience; there is no big, mean Nightmares waiting to ambush them, so all they have to do is kill off a few dozen small enemies and dodge debris.

He and Riku walk Kairi through slowing down once they approach the sleeping Traverse Town, each taking one of her arms to make sure she aces her first landing. They give her a moment to take it all in, sharing a grin at the awe in her eyes.

“It’s so pretty and peaceful,” she exhales in wonder, studying the starry sky above and the lamp lights around.

“I know, right?” Sora bounces on the balls of his feet.

He gives all three of them a quick look. Sora is wearing the same clothes from their Mark of Mastery exam, sans the big, white X on his shirt; Kairi is sporting an outfit that reminds him of how she used to dress before the Destiny Islands fell to darkness, though this one appears much more likely to survive a battle.

Riku, however, looks the most different out of the three of them. While his outfit is still the same -- dark jeans, zipped up sleeveless shirt, Spirit sigil on his back -- his posture and expression has Sora nearly gaping at him in surprise. He had never truly realized how _tired_ Riku looked every single day right up until now, when presented with a Riku that looks more alive and alert than Sora has seen him be for _months_ , even before their final battle.

The bags under his eyes are gone, his hair looks shiny again, and he holds himself with an easy confidence that belies how hard he’s worked to get to where he currently stands, physically _and_ emotionally. It’s such a stark difference that Sora feels inspired even further to work at their healing, so that the real Riku -- the one in the waking world -- can go back to looking like this again.

He isn’t the only one to take notice of this, either; Kairi walks closer to their best friend with a slightly bittersweet smile, reaching up to ruffle his spiky hair a little.

“I had almost forgotten how you look when you’re not running yourself ragged,” she comments. Riku chuckles, a bit rueful.

“I _feel_ much better,” he smiles, taking her hand in his. “It’s kinda like finally seeing the sun after days of constant storms,” he sighs wistfully.

“That’s so sappy,” Sora teases, because that’s his job as a best friend and he has never been known to pass up an opportunity to poke at Riku.

“Shut up, pipsqueak,” Riku snarks back, catching Sora on a playful headlock to the sound of Kairi’s laughter.

Once they calm down, Kairi starts to look around, brows creased in confusion. Sora and Riku exchange a questioning glance.

“What’s wrong?” Sora asks.

Kairi opens her mouths once, closes it, then opens it again. “Is that _music_?” she scrunches up her face. “I can’t even tell where it’s coming from -- it’s everywhere!”

“Oh,” Sora rubs the bridge of his nose. “That’s normal!”

Kairi whips around to give Sora an incredulous look, prompting Riku to snort.

“How is that normal?!”

“This is a dream,” Riku reminds her. “There’s always music playing, in pretty much all the worlds. When we enter a battle, the music changes.”

“ _What!?_ ”

“You just kinda tune it out after a while,” Sora shrugs, lacing his hands behind his head. “It can be useful sometimes, though -- the battle songs only stop when you defeat all the enemies or go out of their range, so it’s harder to get caught off guard by a Nightmare you forgot to defeat.”

“ _And_ particularly difficult or meaningful enemies have different themes, so it lets us know it’s not just another battle,” Riku adds with a smirk. Kairi stares at them like they’ve grown another head each.

“Don’t look too much into it,” Sora laughs. “Dream logic, remember?”

Kairi frowns. “Alright, I guess,” she says, still clearly dubious.

Sora turns to Riku. “You think we should call our dream eaters before we start showing her how flowmotion works?”

“Sure,” Riku shrugs. “You go first.”

Sora puts his fingers to his mouth and lets out a loud whistle, pulling on the bonds he has with three specific dream eaters at the same time. His Meow Wow and Meowjesty appear in twin puffs of pink smoke, while his Pegaslick comes flying from another district.

In about three seconds, Sora is flat on the ground, attacked by two -- then three -- _very_ happy Spirits. Haru, his Meow Wow, licks his face enthusiastically as Meowjesty -- Sora had liked the Spirit’s name too much to change it -- cuts off the circulation of his legs. Lastly, Seiya nuzzles his hair affectionately, hovering a few centimeters above the ground.

“Guys, guys!” Sora laughs, slinging his arms around Haru. “I missed you too, but I can’t breathe!! Let me stand up!”

Meowjesty obediently steps off Sora’s legs, Haru scurries to the floor beside him and Seiya helps him sit up. All three of them refuse to step away from him; Sora accepts a headbutt from Meowjesty with a chuckle, giving the round Spirit a few scratches right in the spot he knows it likes.

“Now, behave!” Sora wags his index at them, even though his wide grin nullifies any attempts of being stern. “I want you to meet my friends -- you already know Riku, but I also brought a new friend!”

Haru goes to nuzzle Riku’s hand, becoming putty in his hands when the boy starts to scratch its neck. His Pegaslick and Meowjesty head to Kairi instead, sniffing her delicately before promptly begging for pets.

Kairi giggles at the lick Meowjesty gives her hand, stroking its head gently. “They’re super adorable!”

“Yeah!” Sora nods with enthusiasm, then proceeds to list out their names for her. Haru looks in their direction when it hears its name being called, but remains close to Riku, now presenting its white and soft underbelly to the other.

“Oh my god, they’re so cute,” Kairi coos. “Can I have one for myself?”

“Of course!” Sora grins.

“We can look through the Fragments we have later so you can get your own,” Riku half-smiles.

“Sweet!” Kairi exclaims.

“Haru, come here!” Sora calls, lowering himself to shower the Spirit in a bit more love. “Your turn, Riku.”

Riku turns to Kairi. “I suggest you cover your ears at least a little,” he smirks. Kairi follows his instructions, looking a bit confused; Sora simply laughs, well aware of the reason for such a warning.

Riku’s whistle is answered almost immediately by an incredibly loud and high pitched screech. His Komory Bat comes flying from a few buildings over at full speed, throwing itself at Riku’s chest with enough force to cause him to lose his balance. His Aura Lion follows in a puff of smoke, while his Kooma Panda materializes a few paces away, sprinting to its owner as it lets out a litany of happy sounds.

Soon enough, Riku is basically buried under his eager dream eaters, surrounded by overjoyed trills from Komory Bat and playful growls from Aura Lion.

“I know, I know! I’m sorry!” Riku exclaims mid-laugh. “I’ll visit more often, I swear!”

Sora sees Meowjesty starting to walk towards Riku and lets go of Haru in a hurry to hold the bigger Spirit away -- if Meowjesty joins the pile atop Riku, it’ll probably be game over for him. This means, of course, that _Haru_ is free to do so instead, bouncing excitedly near Riku’s right leg.

Sora and Kairi simply watch this reunion for a moment, both of them smiling wide at the genuine happiness in Riku’s voice. It’s been a while since they’ve seen their best friend so carefree; it kind of feels like finally taking a deep breath of fresh air after having been trapped in a smoke-filled building.

Sora is so focused on Riku -- his genuine grin, the ruffled hair, the shining eyes -- that it takes him a moment to notice the _look_ Kairi is giving him, making it the third time such a thing has happened just in the last month. He blushes without knowing why, frowning up at her with puffed out cheeks.

“ _Why_ do you keep giving me that look?” he pouts, tightening his hold on Meowjesty. Kairi gives him an indulgent smile, sitting next to him on the cold pavement.

“‘Cause I see something you don’t,” Kairi says, plucking at the lacy hem of her skirt. “Before you ask me about it: I don’t think it’d be right for me to tell you. I could always be wrong about it, and even if I’m not, I still think it’s something you gotta figure out yourself.”

Sora frowns down at the ground. Riku continues to be harrassed by his own dream eaters, too focused on the Spirits to look their way.

“But if it’s so important,” Sora starts, scratching Meowjesty’s ear absentmindedly, “then wouldn’t it be better to know about it as soon as possible?”

Kairi laughs under her breath. “There’s no need to hurry something like this, Sora,” she tells him with twinkling eyes. “No ticking clock in the distance. It’s just something you have to figure out between you and your heart.”

Sora crosses his legs. “But how am I supposed to figure it out if I have no idea what it is?” he whines.

“Well, why don’t you start with what you already have?” she tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. Sora gives her a dubious look. “You’ve noticed that this isn’t the first time I’ve given you this ‘look’, so maybe it’d help to see what those moments have in common and what sets them apart from the rest.”

“Sora! Hey, Sora!” Riku calls, still flat on the pavement. “A little help?”

Kairi encourages him to go with a tilt of her head and a raised eyebrow, drawing Meowjesty’s attention to herself. Sora sighs through his nose but goes without complaint, feeling like the conversation would have been over even if Riku hadn’t interfered.

Sora starts by moving Haru, setting it down a few paces away with a stern look that has the Spirit plopping to the floor sheepishly. Next, he goes to the Aura Lion, ruffling its colorful mane as he crouches next to the dream eater.

“I know that Riku has been a very bad master, with what not visiting you for so long, but you gotta let him stand, okay?” he smiles reassuringly, stroking the Spirit’s back and completely ignoring the dark look Riku shoots him in response to getting called a bad master.

Once the Aura Lion has released Riku from its clutches, Sora helps his best friend sit up. He then tickles Natsu, who is still plastered to Riku’s chest, prompting the Komory Bat to let out a few gargled screeches. From there, it’s just a matter of getting Riku back on his feet, which Kooma Panda does happily, lifting him up like a ragdoll before setting him onto the ground once more.

“Thanks, Konat,” Riku pats the Spirit’s huge belly.

Riku introduces his three dream eaters to Kairi, who coos and giggles as she pets each one of them. The Spirits are all too happy to receive her attention, leaning into her touch like she’s an old friend.

The boys take advantage of this moment to pull out the dream pieces they have in stock, mentally comparing it to the recipes they have as they wonder which Spirits would work well with their best friend. It’d be good to give her three to start with, so that she’d have a spare in case anything happened; Sora gets an idea that has him cackling, leaning in to whisper it to Riku and sharing a smirk with Riku in the aftermath.

“Kairi, are you ready to create your first dream eater?” Sora asks, uncharacteristically serious just to watch her squirm.

“Uh, I think so? Yes?” she frowns, her gaze going from Sora to Riku and back again.

Sora nods, taking a handful of Dulcet Fancies and a few Wondrous Fantasies from Riku and passing them along to Kairi.

“What do I do now?” she asks, studying the colorful shards.

“Hold them against your chest and focus on their energies for a moment,” Riku explains. “The Spirit will appear in front of you.”

Kairi follows their instructions, closing her eyes as she takes a deep breath. A few seconds later, the shards disappear from her hands and a Necho Cat pops into existence at her feet.

“It’s so cute!” Kairi grins, reaching out to pet it. “It looks like a cat, but… with more legs. And a musical note for a tail,” she giggles.

“That’s Necho Cat,” Sora says, lacing his hands behind his nape. “What’re you gonna name it?”

“Oh, uh…” she bites her lip, considering the creature in front of her. “What about Numisa?” she suggests.

The Necho Cat makes a happy noise, bouncing around Kairi. It walks off to mingle with the other dream eaters when Kairi stops petting it.

Next, Riku gives Kairi a few Dulcet Figments and Vibrant Fancies, which she accepts with a raised eyebrow.

“How many am I gonna summon?”

“Three,” Sora replies. “If you concentrate, you can kinda feel a link going from you to Numisa, right?” he asks, waiting for her to nod. “It’s not too hard to maintain that link open when we’re just walking around, but in battle it’s different, so you can only keep two active. We’re giving you three so that you can have a spare, just in case.”

“And that’ll give you some variety, too,” Riku adds. “They all have different strengths and weaknesses.”

“But we actually don’t have all the materials for your third one yet, so we’re gonna have to look for them later.”

“Is it possible to borrow someone else’s dream eaters?” Kairi tilts her head.

“Yeah, it is! Riku and I did it sometimes,” Sora chuckles. “But don’t you wanna have your own?”

Kairi smiles at the fragments in her hands. “Sure. That sounds pretty nice.”

“So, summon that one next,” Riku encourages her.

A Tama Sheep appears in front of her in a cloud of pink smoke. Kairi hugs it immediately.

“Oh my god, it’s so cute!!” she says, squeezing it slightly. “It’s so fluffy! How about that for a name, huh? Do you wanna be called Floof?”

The Spirit preens under its master’s attention, rubbing its face on Kairi’s arm.

“You do, don’t you?” Kairi coos. “Floof it is!”

She doesn’t even bat an eye at Sora and Riku when they laugh at her display. Numisa, seeing that its owner is giving out pats again, goes to request some for itself; soon enough, all eight Spirits are surrounding her, begging for her affection.

“That’s enough, you guys,” Sora chuckles, pulling Haru and Meowjesty out of the fray. “Why don’t you go scout the area a little? See if there’s any Nightmares around for us to deal with.”

Half of the present dream eaters follow his suggestion, leaving only Haru, Natsu and Kairi’s two dream eaters behind. Natsu has perched comfortably on Riku’s shoulder, leaning in to give its master a nuzzle every once in a while; Haru stays close to Sora’s leg, quietly watching the remaining two Spirits.

“Okay, I’m gonna show you some flowmotion moves now,” Sora tells Kairi, prompting her to straighten her spine. “The trick to it is having dream logic kinda bend to your will for a moment -- to do things like defy gravity, stick to a wall, stuff like that.”

He calls forth Kingdom Key and dashes towards one of Traverse Town’s tall lamps, using a little bit of magic as well as his momentum to spin around it a handful of times. Kairi looks at him with both her eyebrows raised when he drops back on his feet.

“Doesn’t that make you dizzy?”

“Not really,” Sora shrugs. “You should try it!”

Kairi remains a bit skeptical. “What if I just barrel onto it full force and nothing happens?” she crosses her arms. Riku snorts at the mental image such a question brings up, earning himself a huff from Kairi. “I’m serious!”

“You’re not going to fail,” Riku reassures her. “It’s almost instinctual. Just dash at it with your keyblade out and focus on your magic; you’re gonna be fine.”

Their friend summons her keyblade to do as instructed, muttering under her breath about ‘stupid dream logic’ or something of the sort. True to Riku’s words, she gets it on the first try, spinning a few times before letting go with a wide grin.

“I did it!”

“Yeah!!” Sora cheers, clapping at her success. “It’s really more about timing,” he shrugs. “You gotta know when to focus your magic, otherwise it won’t work.”

“Okay,” she nods, determination clear in her eyes. “What’s next?”

Sora and Riku show off a handful more moves, taking full advantage of the scenery around them. They let Kairi repeat every one of them until she feels like she’s got a good enough grip of it; their dream eaters follow them around, innocent curiosity evident in their postures.

“Feeling up for battle?” Riku asks Kairi with a half-smirk.

“You bet!”

“There aren’t any heartless in the Sleeping Realm, so the darkness is represented by Nightmares. Though they have the same shape and size of their Spirit counterparts, Nightmares have red eyes and different coloring, so use that to set the two of them apart,” Sora explains.

“We’re gonna spend some time here in Traverse Town to allow you to get used to how combat works in this Realm,” Riku says. “Then we’re going to visit some other worlds, show you around and get the dream pieces we’re missing.”

Sora turns to him. “What about… La Cité das Cloches, Country of Musketeers and Symphony of Sorcery?” he suggests, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“Sounds good,” Riku smiles.

“Wait,” Kairi frowns, shooting Riku an apologetic glance. “Is it really safe for Riku to participate in battle right now? Wouldn’t that make him collapse again?”

Sora stares at the boy in question with a considering look. “I think it’ll be fine,” he says after a beat. “When we had the Mark of Mastery exam, we ran around for what felt like ages, defeating Nightmares and boss-level monsters, yet when I woke up I wasn’t even tired,” he shrugs. “Were you, Riku?”

“No,” Riku shakes his head. “Plus, I’m feeling a lot better in here; maybe this is just another of the Sleeping Realm’s features.”

“Yeah!” Sora smiles. “We probably won’t feel super rested when we wake up tomorrow, but then we can just nap later, right?”

Kairi exhales slowly, releasing the tension that had been gathering in her body. “Right,” she nods, then smirks. “As if Sora would ever pass up the opportunity to slack off and nap.”

“Hey!”

“You’re one hundred percent right, Kai,” Riku agrees, his countenance solemn. Sora blows a raspberry in his direction.

Sora and Riku call back their dream eaters with twin whistles. Aura Lion and Pegaslick show signs of having found Nightmares, so the three of them follow the Spirits, getting ready for battle. Sora sends Meowjesty away with a pat to its head as Riku does the same to Kooma Panda, only with a nod.

The two of them encourage Kairi to stay at the front lines as much as she’s able, in order for her to get some experience fighting real monsters. While sparring with friends is a great way to develop one’s skills with a keyblade, not everything learned from it can be applied against beings such as Nightmares or Heartless. Humans typically form strategies and have patterns that can be deciphered; Heartless and Nightmares, however, simply _attack_.

She gains confidence as they go, keeping a trained eye on their surroundings so as to utilize her new skills to her full advantage. Sora and Riku let her do a Battle Portal on her own after explaining how it works; she returns from it with a beaming grin that lights up her entire face, standing a little taller with pride nearly radiating out of her.

In La Cité das Cloches, they show her the view from the top of the bell tower, standing in silence as the wind whips their hair around. She _loves_ how colorful the Court of Miracles is, brushing her fingers against some of rich, heavy fabrics that decorate the place. They stop there to give their Spirits some attention and teach her a few more magic spells while they’re at it, smiling at her genuine excitement.

The Nightmares in the Country of the Musketeers are considerably stronger than the ones from La Cité das Cloches, so Sora and Riku step in more often, allowing Kairi to hang back and deal with the stragglers until she gains more faith in her abilities.

Kairi’s mouth falls open when she sees the Opera House’s stage, with its polished floors, deep-red curtains and powerful spotlights. They play around on it after disposing of all the Nightmares in the area, taking turns at the center of the stage to tell jokes or dance as if there really was an audience watching their performance.

That’s something that saddens Sora a little -- how empty, how _lifeless_ the worlds are, that is. When he and Riku had visited those same worlds during their exam, they could see smoke coming out of chimneys, hear the white noise of indistinct chatter, sometimes smell the familiar scent of baking pastries if they passed by a house at the right moment, even though they never actually _saw_ people bustling about. Now, the Sleeping Realm seems bare, almost. Were it not for the constant music that follows them everywhere they go, it would have been quite unnerving to walk around.

When they finally touch down on the soft grass outside the Tower in Symphony of Sorcery, Kairi frowns and starts looking around almost immediately, hands raising to rub her own arms. Sora and Riku share a confused look.

“What’s wrong?” Sora asks.

“I don’t know,” Kairi responds, still studying their surroundings. “There’s just… something creepy about this place.”

Riku raises his eyebrows in understanding. “Ah, it’s the lack of music,” he says, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Kairi makes a noise of surprise.

“You’re right! I guess I got used to it.”

A soft, haunting melody starts then, as if it had been just waiting for them notice its absence. They listen to it in silence for a moment, though Kairi continues to rub her arms.

“That’s sweet, but… it’s still got a creepy feel to it,” she chuckles a little.

“The real fun is upstairs, in Master Yen Sid’s office,” Sora grins. “C’mon!”

There’s a few Nightmares to dispatch on the outside of the Tower, so the three of them take care of that first. Kairi startles the first time one of them lands a hit, surprised by the loud orchestral noise, but then shakes her head.

“This world just keeps getting _weirder_ ,” she mutters.

The complete and utter silence in Yen Sid’s office is disconcerting even to Sora, so they jump into Riku’s music score after a very short argument on which side of the world they should visit first.

Sora and Kairi’s jaws drop as a moonlit forest comes into existence in front of them. The music that swells into being around them is _wonderful!_ Sora turns to Riku, feeling slightly envious.

“You never told me your side was this pretty,” he says with crossed arms. Riku laughs for a moment at the indignance in Sora’s voice, then gives him a small, challenging smirk.

“This is just the beginning.”

Riku leads them out of the narrow passage that contains his music score in silence. Sora marvels at the size of the trees all around them -- with thick, moss-covered trunks that look like a little like they could outlive the universe itself if they put their minds to it. The forest litter squelches a little under their feet, wet with dew; the air is humid, but a steady breeze keeps the place cool and pleasant.

They jump on flowers -- which hold their weight just fine, despite Kairi’s skepticism -- and slide on vines, magic focused on their feet to keep them from falling. Flowmotion allows them to climb up the trees so that they can settle down on a low branch, presented with an overview of the sprawling vegetation surrounding them and the blooming flower field beyond the forest.

After finding the portal in the area and coming out empty handed, they head for the next area, passing through said flower field. The blossoms glow a pretty, soft blue and sway gently in the breeze; Sora brushes his fingers on a few of them, bending at the waist to be able to do so.

Sora’s jaw drops yet again when they finally reach the next patch of forest. The warm, orange-gold light that spills through the gaps in the foliage sets the forest floor on fire; the litter crunches under their feet instead of squelching. All in all, it’s a picture-perfect image of what some of the books he and Riku had read describe autumn to be like.

Destiny Islands only really has two seasons: wet and dry. It was unbearably humid all year round, and though they still followed the four seasons model described in books old and new, their passing never really had an impact on life on the Islands. After Sora saw the outside world and heard of how the worlds came about to exist -- each tiny little world a fragment of what used to be one single thing -- the idea of seasons made more sense, as well as why Destiny Islands stuck to it after all this time; though it was still useless for them, it held weight as a relic of ancient times.

He had gotten to experience a lot of different climates on his travels, from Agrabah’s arid heat to Arendelle’s freezing cold. He had also seen spring in the Kingdom of Corona, with the flowers all in bloom, but this was the first time he was seeing what felt like _proper_ autumn.

“It’s so beautiful,” Kairi whispers breathlessly next to him. Sora nods.

“It’s amazing,” he says, studying the red leaves that refuse to fall from their branches.

Not even the presence of a couple of Ryu Dragons is enough to dispel their awe, finicky as the Nightmares are to defeat. Riku jumps into a Battle Portal in the hopes of locating the final dream piece they need for Kairi’s final Spirit, but once again comes out empty handed.

They bask in the quiet beauty of the area for some time after dispatching all of the Nightmares around, watching the way in which the ground alternates between light and shadow as a consequence of the sun and leaves.

When they start to head towards the last area, Kairi’s teeth begin to chatter, goosebumps making the fine hairs on her arms stand on end. She scowls at their questioning gazes.

“W-why are you l-looking at m-me like t-that?!” she asks with as much righteous indignation as her constant shivering allows.

Sora turns his head to stare at the wintery landscape that unfurls a few dozen meters ahead, realizing what the problem must be.

“Kairi, your brain is just playing tricks on you,” Riku tells her in a soothing voice, having reached the same conclusion as Sora did.

“This is a dream, remember?” Sora adds. “You can’t feel the cold unless you _want_ to.”

Just then, a gust of wind blows in their direction, coming from the snowy area up ahead. Kairi curls up on herself when it passes, her shivering growing worse, but Sora and Riku don’t even bat an eye.

“C’mon, Kai,” Riku gently lays a hand on her shoulder. “You gotta change your expectations of this place, convince yourself that it _isn’t_ cold, and your body will just follow suit.”

She shakes her head with an angry noise, crouching on the floor to hug her knees as she closes her eyes and _focuses_. Sora smiles at how she scrunches up her entire face in concentration but doesn’t dare to give voice to his mirth, lest she decides to use him for target practice or something.

A few minutes later, her expression smooths out into neutrality. She blinks open her eyes with a hint of incredulity.

“I can’t believe that worked,” she mutters. Sora and Riku both snicker.

“Feeling better?” Riku raises an eyebrow.

“ _Much_ better,” Kairi nods.

“Then let’s move!” Sora exclaims, falling into step next to Riku as they progress further.

Sora smiles at the wonder Kairi displays when the ground beneath their feet becomes covered with snow; this is her first time experiencing the real thing, if Sora’s remembering things right. A few meters ahead, the earth under the snow is replaced by solid ice -- Sora would guess that the only thing keeping them from falling on their butts and probably breaking a bone in the process is pure dream logic.

The portal in this last area gives them the item they’re looking for, _thankfully_. Sora and Riku pass Kairi the Wild and Brilliant Fantasies with matching grins that only grow wider at the suspicious look she gives them both.

“What are you guys planning?” she narrows her eyes, tapping her foot in warning.

“Just summon it,” Sora encourages with a slightly manic grin.

“You’ll like it, we promise,” Riku nods.

Sora and Riku shuffle out of the way when she closes her eyes to focus on the dream pieces, aware that the Spirit that is about to come into being is massive. The Skelterwild pops into existence some seconds later, promptly letting out a loud roar which startles Kairi so badly that she jumps back on instinct.

“Oh my god,” Kairi breathes out, her eyes wide. Her newest Spirit shifts its considerable weight from one foot to the other, leaving huge grooves in the snow.

Sora grins, letting the dream eater sniff his hand before he pats its shoulder. “So, what do you think? This is Skelterwild.”

“It’s so big!”

“It’s a pain in the ass to defeat, too,” Riku raises an eyebrow, coming up to the Spirit’s other side. “Since you already have two cutesy dream eaters, we thought it’d be nice to give you a badass one as well.”

“And there is no dream eater more badass than Skelterwild!” Sora presents with a flourish.

“I love it,” Kairi beams. “What about Osterion, hmm?” she tilts her head, reaching out to scratch its jaw. “Sound regal enough for you?”

The Spirit leans heavily onto her hand, almost making her lose her balance. Kairi laughs, petting it further.

“Seems like you liked it!”

“Now you have your three dream eaters as promised,” Riku smiles.

“They’re lovely, guys. Thanks.”

Sora rubs his nose. “No problem!”

“What’re we doing next?” she asks, turning her head in Sora’s direction.

“We could visit my side of this world,” he shrugs, lacing his hands behind his head with an easy smile.

Kairi stares at him with shining eyes, her curiosity evident in her voice. “How is it like? Is it similar to this one?”

Sora considers telling her about the world inside his music score for a second before discarding the idea with a slight smirk.

“Eh, you’ll have to wait and see,” he says, laughing when she scowls at him.

They backtrack at a sedate pace, basking in the amazing sights -- and music, too! -- for a little longer. Time doesn’t work as one would think in the Sleeping Worlds, just as Sora and Riku had discovered in their Mark of Mastery exam: you could spend days, maybe _weeks_ wandering around, yet when you woke up, only a few hours would have gone by.

The complete silence of Yen Sid’s office is nearly deafening after the lovely music from Riku’s score. They all fail to hide their shivers at the difference in atmosphere, hurrying to Sora’s score to escape the resulting unpleasant feeling.

Sora leads them out of the rocky path that contains the music score with great pleasure, turning around to face them with a giddy grin once the clouds become visible.

“And this--” he gestures at the fluffy white clouds and small rainbows all around them -- “is _my_ side!”

He watches as his friends study the area they’re in with wide eyes, feeling quite satisfied with himself.

“It’s so pretty,” Kairi smiles. “It’s like we’re flying!”

Riku nods. “It’s really nice.”

“I know, right?” Sora laughs. “The first area is all clouds and rock, but there are some fields beyond that.”

Kairi sighs wistfully. “Man, I wish I had wings so I could fly around here.”

Sora stops to think for a moment, turning to study his Pegaslick.

“You know what,” he starts, tilting his head. “I think we can do the next best thing.”

It takes some time and a dash of emergency logistics, but they figure out a way for all of them to fly without overloading poor Seiya. Riku decides to link up with Natsu to get his own wings, trusting that he’ll be able to hold the form for as long as he needs outside of battle, which leaves only Sora and Kairi on Pegaslick. Once all other dream eaters have been dismissed, they take to the skies, soaring high above the ground and letting out loud whoops of joy.

Riku flies ahead of them, doing spins and tricks as Sora and Kairi cheer him on. He’s always been a show-off -- even more so when his two best friends were around to goad him -- and the little pleased smirk he shoots their way is only further proof of how much he’s enjoying all this.

Sora can’t help it: he stares. Stares fixedly, not even noticing that he’s smiling as his best friend follows the wind ahead of them. Kairi squeezes his waist to get his attention, presenting him with yet another knowing grin.

“You’re doing it again,” she whispers, giggling when he huffs and averts his gaze. “Don’t worry about it,” she places her chin on his shoulder. “It’s not a bad thing.”

Sora says nothing, staring hard at Pegaslick’s multicolored mane for a long minute as he processes Kairi’s fond words. Truth be told, he can’t even say he’s surprised when he blinks only to realize that his gaze has drifted back to Riku.

It always does, after all.

With all the fun they’ve had and running about they’ve done while traveling through the Sleeping Realm, Sora hasn’t really had the time to think about what Kairi had said back in Traverse Town, but that doesn’t bother him all that much. He can think about it once they’re back home; considering the situation he and Riku are in, it’s not like there’s a shortage of time to spend around doing just that.

With that decided, Sora nudges the thought aside and turns his focus outwards again, determined to make the most of their shared dream.

The rest can wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 9, also known as Sora is so gay but he doesn't see it yet. The Dream Eater chapter. I love them too much to leave them out, so I made a list of my dream eaters names to use here in this fic, if y'all haven't noticed lmao. Though I put in Pegaslick for Sora, what I actually had in mind (what I actually have in my party, too) is Eletricorn. Only, the name of my Eletricorn is Pikachu, and I didn't wanna put that on the fic pfft. Haru (spring) for Meow Wow and Natsu (summer) for Komory Bat, because summer always follows spring :p  
> I put Traverse in Trance on loop for a good chunk of that part on this chapter, cause it's a lovely song. Oh! I took the general idea of Kairi's outfit from this amazing art: https://queerdraws.tumblr.com/post/190968287179/concept-a-kingdom-hearts-game-w-kairi-as-a It's super close to her kh1 thing while also being more fit for battle, and I'm absolutely dismal at coming up with outfits, so when I saw this a few weeks ago I knew I had to take this opportunity!  
> I had So Much fun taking all the liberties I wanted with dream logic in here, because I'm a hoe and I do whatever I want. Yoko Shimomura and the rest of her staff are 100% angels, so we must appreciate their work!  
> I wanted to make Kairi's position regarding the eventual romance pretty clear in here. She's not here to guide Sora by the hand to the realization that he has feelings for Riku, because this doesn't involve her directly and she has no obligation to be Sora's human handbook to understanding feelings. I'm aroace and this colors my perception of romance very deeply; plus, feelings are goddamn complicated, so the only one that can (even if just tentatively) decide that Sora's feelings for Riku are of the non-platonic kind is Sora himself. No one else can feel what _he_ is feeling.  
> I spent,,,, _way too much_ time on the khwiki and with the game itself open to check the info I was putting in here. I don't know if I'm proud of that, tbh, but it is what it is.  
> End note: Spirits are attention whores. I rest my case.


	11. Chapter 10

A week after Aqua’s visit, Sora asks her to come by again to oversee another healing session. He had shared his plans of making such sessions a weekly occurrence with Riku the day before, spurred on by the results of their check-up with the researchers at Radiant Garden.

He’d also confessed that he felt kind of weird asking her to continue to watch over them whenever they planned on healing their hearts, but there was no way around it for the time being. He hoped, however, that they’d be able to eliminate the need for her supervision sometime soon.

Riku couldn’t help but share the sentiment. Asking the Keyblade Master to leave her world just to watch them sleep certainly felt strange; he was sure she had a lot of more interesting or more productive things to do with the time she wasted on them, even though something told him she’d never agree with them on that.

In the days since their visit to Radiant Garden, Riku’s brain has been hard at work to make sense of the information they’d received. A thought had started to nag at him while they were still inside the castle, refusing to leave him alone -- namely, the question of how long he and Sora would be stuck together as they are now.

Ienzo could only provide them with his best estimate, based tentatively on what little data they had. He’d told them that they should be able to part ways without significant pain or side effects for Riku when his heart’s integrity reached the one Sora currently had -- around 85%. After all, aside from being forced out of commission of friendly spars, Sora didn’t really show any ill effects of having a heart that was missing more than one tenth of itself.

Kairi had wondered aloud if the two of them would be able to stay farther apart as they healed, even before they got to that particular point, but Sora outright refused to even try testing their limit. Consequently, they could only _guess_ the exact distance it took for the bond to snap shut and thus hurt Riku, which made Sora be extra careful with sticking close, just in case. 

Most of the time, Sora being near felt pretty natural; they _did_ spend fourteen years joined at the hip, so it wasn’t like they were strangers to living out of one another’s pockets. There are moments, however, in which their situation jumps to the forefront with the grace of a bull in a china shop, leaving both Sora _and_ Riku restless -- Sora due to his worry, Riku due to the unpleasant feeling of being coddled.

Fortunately enough, they usually manage to smooth things over on the same day. Communication is a work in progress, but it’s one that Riku is proud to say they are giving their best shot at.

Even so, all of this new knowledge makes Riku wonder. Everyone seems to have taken the idea that Sora and Riku will have to stay joined at the hip until the latter heals completely as a fact, but Riku isn’t so sure. They already know that a heart can heal without aid if presented with the right conditions, so eventually it won’t be _necessary_ for Sora to stick around anymore. There won’t be anything stopping him from going back to travelling around the universe, making new friends and saving people; with Sora absent, Riku’s heart would be more than capable of continuing its healing on its own.

Riku would never dare to confess those thoughts to _anyone_ , though -- he refuses to even imagine the scolding he’d get from Sora and Kairi for merely _thinking_ of such things. Still, it’s not like he can just banish them from his mind by will alone -- trust him, he’s tried. They always come back, slipping through the cracks in his armor to suffocate him whenever he lowers his guard.

But enough about that for the moment. Sora has a knack for noticing when Riku gets lost inside one of those thought spirals, coaxing him out of it with a touch to his arm as well as a few quiet words to make sure he’s okay. It’s sweet, more often than not, but there are some thoughts that Riku judges to be best left unsaid and Sora has been, well, _pushier_ , lately, in his quest to save Riku from himself.

They’re both in Sora’s living room when Aqua arrives, this time with only Terra in tow. Daichi welcomes them in with a wide smile, exchanging pleasantries effortlessly once introductions have been completed.

“Kairi isn’t with you?” Aqua asks, taking a seat on the sofa not occupied by Sora and Riku.

“Couldn’t get out of a thing with her parents,” Sora explains.

“Ah, that makes sense.”

“How is she doing?” Terra pipes up. “After what you guys discovered in Radiant Garden, I mean.”

Riku smiles a little. “It was a hard hit. It’s obvious that she’s still thinking about it a lot, but Kairi’s strong; she’ll be alright.”

Aqua nods. “That’s good to hear.”

“How about you guys?” Sora crosses his legs. “I talk with Ventus pretty often, but I wanna hear it from you too!”

Aqua chuckles under her breath. “We’re doing fine. Cleaning up the castle is hard work, but I love getting to explore it and rediscover all my favorite spots.”

“We always knew it was big, but I don’t think we ever truly understood how _gigantic_ it was until now,” Terra sighs, “There’s just so much _dust_ …” he mutters with a far-away look on his eyes.

“There really is,” Aqua grimaces. “I have no idea how it stayed so clean when Master Eraqus was alive -- I’ve been wondering if it was some sort of spell he never taught us.”

“If there _is_ a spell, I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually!” Sora grins. “Sounds like a pretty useful thing to know, too.”

“Sora’s room definitely needs one,” Riku smirks, laughing when Sora punches his arm.

“Stop insulting my room!”

“I’ll stop doing it when you _clean_ it!” Riku challenges him, rubbing his knuckles onto Sora’s scalp.

“You never complained this much before,” Sora puffs out his cheeks defiantly.

“I didn’t have to _live_ part time in it before,” Riku snaps back, crossing his arms.

Sora goes to jab his elbow onto Riku’s ribcage, but Riku catches it before it connects; he then proceeds to run his nails over the underside of Sora’s upper arm, prompting his best friend to shriek and recoil with a dark look on his face. Sora’s answering kick is similarly blocked, making him jump on Riku with a wordless noise of something approaching pure rage.

They don’t even hear Daichi reenter the living room amidst their altercation. He sets a tray with refreshments and light snacks on the center table with a ragged, fond sigh.

“Apologies for those two, they take after their mothers,” they hear Daichi say, turning to face him just in time to catch his conspiratory smirk.

Aqua and Terra both laugh, accepting the drinks Daichi passes them with a nod.

“We don’t mind,” Aqua waves the apology off. “We’ve all been through so much… I’m just glad that we can still share moments like these,” she smiles softly, looking down at the cup in her hands. Terra lays a hand on her shoulder, nodding in agreement of her words to the others.

“Sora told us some of the things you’ve been through,” Daichi says, his countenance a bit more serious. “No one should have had to deal with even _half_ of the things you all have, especially at such young ages,” he shakes his head, his voice full of parental worry.

“Dad…” Sora mutters, quietly extricating himself from Riku’s lax grasp. Daichi steps closer to his son, ruffling his hair with a rueful smile.

“It’s alright, Sora. What really matters to me is that you’re home now -- safe and sound. Everything else will heal with time, so long as we still have our friends to stick by our side, right?” he grins. Riku is struck yet again by the realization of how similar father and son are in their deliberate, relentless positivity.

“Yeah,” Sora smiles, getting another hair ruffle for his troubles.

Daichi leaves them not long after that, claiming that Aiko left him in charge of the grocery shopping for the week. The four of them wave at him as he leaves, then sit in silence for a beat once the door closes.

Aqua turns back to them. “You take after your dad in a lot of ways, Sora,” she comments with a playful smile. Terra nods at her side.

Sora rubs the bridge of his nose with a pleased grin. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that.”

Terra chuckles. “A whole lot, I’m guessing.”

Riku waits until the topic dies down to give voice to a question he’s been turning around in his mind for a few minutes.

“So, how are Naminé, Rikuto and Vanitas settling in?”

Aqua exhales slowly. “Naminé is very sweet; she’s always offering to help us around. Rikuto is not very talkative around us -- though I can hear him going back and forth with Vanitas sometimes -- but he always makes sure to help as well. Vanitas…” she sighs, rubbing her forehead. “He keeps to himself more often than not, but that doesn’t calm me down one bit -- probably just means he’s setting up more traps around the castle for us,” she groans in clear displeasure.

“Don’t be fooled by her act, though -- she’s been warming up to Vanitas, even if she won’t admit it,” Terra cuts in, laughing loudly at the indignant noise Aqua makes.

“Really!?” Sora asks, hanging on the edge of his seat with a wide grin. Riku snorts -- it’s _so_ like Sora to get excited over something like that.

“Really,” Terra nods, smirking equally as wide. “She found some of his paintings, talked a bit with Naminé and now she has all these plans to bring him over to her crafts as well,” he elaborates, raising his voice to be heard over Aqua’s attempts to shut him up.

Seeing them like this -- Terra with a teasing smirk, Aqua with a small blush coloring her cheeks in response to being exposed in this manner -- reminds Riku of Daichi’s earlier remark. It’s very easy to forget that Aqua is just one year older than Riku himself is, considering the fact that she didn’t age a day while in the Realm of Darkness.

So many of them have turned to her for guidance and support, admiring her strength of heart as well as her battle expertise. She’s taken the role of leader with grace, too, which makes it easier still to forget her age. For all her poise and steadfast nature, she’s still just a girl doing her very best to keep on moving forward; still just a girl that can tease and be teased by her friends, among many other things.

Sora and Riku let the two friends banter for some time, twin smiles on their faces. Once the conversation has quieted down, the four of them head upstairs, making their way to Sora’s bedroom in relative silence. Sora gives them permission to look around while he and Riku get comfortable, basking in the cool air of the recently installed AC unit.

Trying to fall asleep while knowing there’s someone watching you do so is a bit disconcerting, if Riku’s being honest. It’s one of the _very few_ instances in which he thanks the ever lingering exhaustion for existing; if it wasn’t there to pull him under by force, he doesn’t think he could manage to doze off.

As it stands, all it takes is a little bit of quiet and the awareness that Sora is right there at his side -- plastered to it, in fact, enough for Riku to feel the rise and fall of his chest, proof of his continued existence -- to allow exhaustion to take it over from there

Riku closes his eyes, his senses muffling until he’s falling asleep; until he’s falling into a dive.

x

The healing session goes by without a hitch -- not that Sora was expecting any less. Aqua and Terra had been quick to take their leave after Sora and Riku woke up, though not before they decided that there would be another session in the following week.

Aqua had agreed to Sora’s suggestion of revising the need for supervision after a couple more weeks. If there were still no incidents after a month’s worth of healing sessions, it would be fair to say that they were in the clear, so long as they kept on being careful -- which Sora of course promised yet again to be.

He wouldn’t risk Riku’s life just to get better faster.

Kairi wasn’t there to nag them into staying awake this time, so Sora and Riku went back to bed pretty much as soon as Aqua and Terra left the house. Aiko woke them up some time later to make sure they ate dinner, smiling fondly at how groggy the two of them were. By the time they finished eating, the post-healing exhaustion had started to mix with natural sleepiness, so back to bed they went, barely noticing Daichi’s hearty chuckles at their zombie-like shuffle upstairs.

As a direct consequence of all of that, Sora ends up finding himself awake and fully alert at the very _pleasant_ hour of 2 a.m., staring unseeingly at the point in which the walls of his bedroom meet the ceiling. He had tried to go back to sleep for about half an hour to no avail while Riku slept on peacefully by his side, so he’d eventually admitted defeat.

Sora turns his head to study his best friend: the moonlight that spills through the window softens Riku’s edges and turns his hair luminescent, making him look somewhere between adorable and ethereal as he lies on his side -- facing Sora -- with their blankets pulled up to his chin. the bags under his eyes don’t seem as harsh now as they do during the day, which is an observation that has Sora’s smiling softly, his hand reaching out on its own to brush away a few silver strands from his best friend’s cheek.

Kairi’s knowing smirk flashes into his mind, prompting him to huff through his nose and retract his hand. Her words have been almost a constant presence in his mind ever since their conversation at the Sleeping Traverse Town, but Sora has yet to set aside a moment to actually think about it in depth. He figures there’s no time like the present, seeing as sleep is unlikely to take him back anytime soon.

He crawls over Riku with measured movements, not wishing to disturb him even though Sora knows his best friend has been an unusually heavy sleeper for the past few weeks. Sora sinks into his bean bag with a ragged sigh, sprawling out like one the starfishes they’d sometimes find on the beaches, tipping his head back until he’s staring at the upside-down wall next to him.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what all those moments that Kairi had pointed out had in common: they were all instances of him staring at Riku in one way or another. What set them _apart_ , though, was the real question for Sora.

Watching Riku was not a rare occurence to Sora by any means. He’s been doing it for pretty much his entire life, for a wide variety of reasons, so pinpointing any particular case feels like an unnecessary hurdle. Still, he puts in the effort; Kairi had told him this was _important_ , so he’ll figure this out even if it kills him.

When they were kids, Sora would theorize that he watched Riku mostly due to a mix of fascination and hero worship. Even a single year of difference feels like an _eternity_ when you’re at that age; Riku was the cool older kid that Sora spent nearly all of his waking hours with -- playing together, exploring the Islands, and making up great adventures filled with pirates and monsters.

He didn’t look down on Sora like some of the older kids at school did; neither did he think that Sora’s interests were boring or baby-ish. Riku could have easily made friends with said older kids, but he stuck with _Sora_ , turning his back to the others without so much as a second glance. He was quiet, but kind; smart, too, even if he said some really strange stuff every now and then.

As they became older, their friendly rivalry grew deeper -- as well as not so friendly, eventually. At that time, Sora watched Riku to compare and learn. He’d study Riku as they sparred, making mental notes on how he moved: where he put his weight, the tells in his stance, his weak points. Riku had always taken exercising more seriously than Sora, so the fact that he was the winner of most of their fights was not at all surprising.

Sora had taken an interest in swordplay because the characters in the stories he liked almost always fought with swords -- brave knights and dastardly pirates alike. Riku, meanwhile, found in exercising a way to achieve some measure of peace from whatever went on inside his head, even if just momentarily.

Then darkness took the Destiny Islands.

After their first encounter in Traverse Town, in which Riku vanished as suddenly as he had appeared, whenever they met, Sora stared at Riku in a borderline desperate search for any signs of the friend he’d grown up with, buried under the bold declarations of how _strong_ he’d become with the powers of the darkness, of how Sora had abandoned both him and Kairi in favor of his new friends.

He found what he’d been looking for as they worked together to close the Door to Darkness -- and then all Sora wanted was to be able to see Riku again.

Now, more often than not, Sora stares out of concern -- out of a wish to make sure Riku is saying the truth when he insists he’s alright. All of this watching over the years has provided Sora with a wealth of knowledge about his best friend’s ticks and tells, to the point in which sometimes he acts before even consciously realizing what, exactly, is setting off the alarms.

However, ‘concern’ doesn’t fit the bill for the instances Kairi had pointed out; in fact, all of them happened at times when Riku was feeling more alert or being more active. A part of Sora wants to wave it off and just say it was due to his long-cultivated habit of watching Riku, but it wouldn’t feel right to do that after Kairi went through the trouble of singling them out so thoroughly.

Aiko and Daichi had instilled in him very early on the importance of being honest with himself about what he feels. Theirs iss a family that proudly wears their hearts on their sleeves; Aiko often tells him this trait had been one of the things that made her start liking Daichi in their teenage years. Sora does his best to follow their teachings, even though he isn’t the type to actively think about what he’s feeling -- more often than not, he just goes with the flow.

Not to mention that figuring out just _what_ exactly he is feeling at any given time is a chore. Sora has no idea how anyone could look at the tangled mess inside their own brains and manage to pick it apart, like a food critic being able to recognize every single spice used in a dish -- even the _notion_ of it was mind-boggling. Over the years, Sora has found himself wishing for a cheat sheet on how to recognize your own feelings more often than he’d like to admit.

Come to think of it, all the moments Kairi had pointed out were moments in which Sora had been studying Riku’s physical appearance. Was that it? It felt plausible enough, though Sora couldn’t see why it’d make Kairi look at him like _that_.

He has never really understood all the blushing and squealing that came with complimenting someone’s looks, be it in real life or in books. The girls at school would always whisper about it, like it was some grand secret never to be spoken in a louder voice -- Sora didn’t get that _at all_.

It was just obvious for anyone with eyes that Riku was good-looking.

Sora had lost count long ago of how many times he’d heard whispers about his best friend’s hair, eyes, or body shape while walking through the school halls. There had even been times in which someone particularly bold approached Sora to see if he could put in a good word about them with Riku, since they were best friends and all.

Plus, Riku took care of himself in ways that Sora never even truly considered; exercising was one of the ways he did it, of course, but he also cared about how his hair or clothes looked, which only served to make even more girls take an interest in him.

Sora _knows_ that Riku is handsome -- he hasknown it for a long time. It was a fact of life; plus, it isn’t like he‘s the only pretty friend Sora has; Kairi is a looker, too -- as well as Axel, Terra, Aqua, Naminé.... now that he’s thinking about it, Sora realizes he has a lot of good-looking friends.

So, the reason Kairi had been giving him those _looks_ was because she’d caught him studying Riku’s physical appearance. He still doesn’t know why she’d react in such a way -- which indicates the existence of some deeper underlying reason that Sora has yet to discern -- but it’s almost 4 a.m. and he’s finally feeling sleepy again, so the rest will have to wait.

For now, he crawls over Riku to settle on his previous spot, pulling the covers up to his nose as he snuggles up to his best friend with a happy sigh.

Five minutes later, Sora is out like a light.

x

Riku wakes up to the sound of Sora talking to someone on the gummi phone. This has become a common occurrence in the month since they left the Mysterious Tower; Sora likes taking advantage of the time before Riku wakes up to catch up with their friends, like the social butterfly that he is. Today, Sora is talking with Donald; Riku’s brain is still too fuzzy with sleep to decipher the duck’s garbled words, so he focuses on Sora’s voice instead as he waits for his body to whirr back to life for the day.

It doesn’t take long for Riku to notice that they’re talking about _him_. Sora appears to be filling Donald in on the stuff that has happened in the past few weeks, including the little talk he had with Riku about the importance of good communication.

Riku would feel bad about eavesdropping, but Sora had told him he didn’t mind Riku listening in after a similar situation a few days ago -- he’d argued that he was well aware that Riku could wake up at any moment, adding that if he wanted to keep something private he could just hole up in the bathroom or something of the sort.

Riku snickers to himself when Donald offers to come over and hit him with a good old Thundaga to set him straight if he causes Sora anymore grief. He’s well aware that the duck still harbors some doubts about him -- even if he’s gotten a lot less grumbly over it after seeing how much Mickey cares about Riku and how much he’s matured following the end of their first adventure -- for the same reasons that Leon does: both of them had _been there_ for Sora when Riku was messing around with the powers of darkness; they know how much Sora suffered because of Riku’s actions, and so they have never quite forgiven him for it.

Riku expected nothing less, to be honest, though Sora insisted that their worry was completely unnecessary.

“I know how to deal with him,” Sora tells Donald, leaving no room for arguments. Riku bristles a little at the statement as a reflex. “I’ve been dealing with him my _entire life_. He can’t hide from me.”

 _Rude_ , Riku thinks, frowning at the ceiling. Donald says something absolutely indecipherable in response.

“We’re best friends!” Sora says with what Riku would bet is a roll of his eyes. “If he tries to pull something like that again he’ll have to answer to me.”

 _Don’t I know it,_ Riku snorts silently. Sora might as well be a bird of prey, with how closely he’s been watching Riku lately.

“If you say so,” Donald says, still clearly dubious.

“I do say so,” Sora declares in a tone that is bordering on arrogant.

Riku tunes them out for a bit, letting his eyes drift shut as he enjoys the warmth of Sora’s bed. In a few more hours, the sun will be shining directly into Sora’s bedroom, but for now they can get the light without the heat.

“Y’know,” Sora starts, quieter than usual, drawing Riku’s attention to him like a magnet. “A little part of me is glad that this-- _thing_ is happening, as much as I don’t really like to admit it. It sucks that Riku is going through all this terrible stuff, but in the past month or so we’ve been closer than we’ve been in _years_ , even before the Islands fell. We’ve always been best friends, but I could tell that our rivalry back then wasn’t exactly friendly anymore. It kinda felt like we were competing to prove something, not just because it was fun.

“He did some bad stuff, yeah, I know that, but he knows it was wrong and he’s been doing his _best_ to make up for it ever since. He’s changed a lot in the past few years, but with the whole thing with Xehanort and saving the worlds multiple times, we never really got the chance to just _hang out_ , you know? There was always another mission to be done, another person to save. So I’m just… I’m really happy that we can lay low for now to figure all this stuff out -- how we can still fit together, even with everything that’s happened.”

There’s a beat of silence after Sora finishes his piece, then a crackling sigh from the other side of the line.

“Sora…” Donald says, soft in a way that Riku has only heard him be with Sora.

Sora chuckles, sounding a smidge sheepish. “Didn’t know I had all that stuff lying around in my head. Before you ask, I’m fine, really! It’s good to be back home.”

Riku turns on his side without a word, pulling the blanket up until only his hair is peeking out. He understands how Sora is feeling, having had some similar thoughts over the weeks, though he hadn’t bothered to take the time to make sense of them like Sora has done just now.

Hearing Sora talk about how they’d been drifting apart before the Islands fell stung a bit. Riku knew that that was all on him; he was the one that got too fixated with the idea of becoming stronger; too obsessed with the thought of _getting out_ and exploring the universe he _knew_ was out there.

As a preteen, he used to wonder when the words of that weird stranger he met on the Play Island as a kid would turn out to be true. The man had said there would be no more borders around, below or above, but those borders were still very _real_ \-- most days, Riku had felt as if they were closing in, slowly suffocating him.

He had lashed out as a result, putting all of his effort into getting _out out out_ even as he grew distant from Sora and Kairi, reasoning that they could make up for lost time once they succeeded in sailing away from their prison surrounded by water. When the opportunity to finally fulfill his dreams appeared, he grabbed it with the desperation of a starving man presented with a lavish banquet, never even giving it a moment’s thought to what would happen to his home, his parents or his friends.

Maleficent had taken advantage of that desperation within him, knowing just the right words to say to make him dance to her tune. When faced with the possibility that even after everything he’d done, he was still lacking the strenght he wished for, he’d been stupid enough to accept Ansem into his heart -- a mistake that he’s now spent the better part of two years trying to make up for.

Then, of course, it turned out that that was only the beginning of a much bigger mess, with much higher stakes than any of them had signed up for, however unwillingly. A mess that insisted on keeping them apart, be it by forcing Sora to sleep for a year as his memories were pieced back together, or by making Riku and Sora stay in slightly different versions of the worlds they visited on their Mark of Mastery exam, or even by sending them on separate missions in the weeks leading up to the final battle.

Or, as it were, by having Sora disappear for three entire months as a result of his misuse of the power of waking.

It seemed like the universe simply did not want them to catch a break. But it had a sense of humor, apparently, or maybe just a lot of spite stashed away, because it then decided that if it was a break that they wanted, a break they would get -- no take-backs allowed.

Shitty as it was, though, Riku couldn’t write off their current situation as one hundred percent bad, same as Sora had said just now. Weren’t for the damage their hearts had sustained and all the consequences that came with it, he and Sora would probably not be _quite_ as close as they were at the moment; they’d still be hanging out a lot, Riku was sure of that, but there was a difference between ‘hanging out’ and ‘spending literally every single moment together’.

A golden opportunity hid beneath the bitter ashes of despair -- a chance to reconnect; to find out if their jagged edges still fit together as well as they did before, during the time when they were still mostly whole. It was a chance to make up for everything that had happened, even if their friends denied the need of such a thing.

Riku startles when he feels the bed dip all of a sudden, turning his head to the side to catch Sora grinning at him.

“Oh good, you’re awake!” his best friend says, adjusting his position to use Riku’s legs as a backrest. “I was just about to wake you so I could get breakfast.”

“Your parents aren’t home?”

“Nope, just the two of us this morning.”

“Ah.”

Sora frowns at him, immediately reminding Riku of how he had compared his best friend to a bird of prey just a few minutes ago -- which in turn nearly makes him snort.

“You okay? You seem a bit out of it.”

“Had a nightmare,” Riku lies, reaching out to ruffle Sora’s hair in a soothing motion, smiling at the little noise of understanding he lets out. He’s unsurprised by how quickly Sora has accepted his explanation; they’re no strangers to night terrors, after all.

“Wanna talk about it?” Sora offers, leaning into Riku’s hand as a quiet way to reassure him of his continued presence.

“Nah,” Riku shrugs. “Thanks, though.”

Sora smiles. “Anytime.”

They channel surf for a while after eating breakfast, trash talking the reality tv shows they come across until they can’t breathe from how much they’re laughing. Sora leans close whenever possible, tucking himself against Riku’s side like he used to do when they were kids; Riku’s heart skips a beat whenever Sora turns his head to grin at him, his infinitely blue eyes half-shut due to how big and genuine the smile is.

Kairi drops by some time after lunch, her hands on her hips and her expression positively thunderous. Sora and Riku cower from the intensity of it before she even opens her mouth to scold them for not answering her texts all day yesterday, forcing her to ask Aqua if they were still alive and in one piece after their healing session, since Kairi herself was busy hanging out with her parents.

Riku wonders how Sora had failed to notice her texts after spending the better part of an hour talking with Donald, but he remains wisely silent on the topic -- Sora hasn’t done anything in the past few days to deserve the wrath that would come out of Kairi learning about that little fact.

A few hours later, the three of them help Aiko with making dinner, weaving around each other and the dinner table with an ease born of a decade of doing so. Kairi had promised to eat with her own parents that night, so Aiko sets aside some of the dessert she had bought for Kairi to take home with her. Daichi gets back just in time to see her off, taking her place in the kitchen with an easy grin.

Sora and Riku retreat to the former’s bedroom after dinner. Riku boots up Sora’s old game system to continue playing an RPG he’d started some days ago, and Sora picks up the scarf he’s been knitting on and off, claiming that he should be almost done with it.

Riku is in the middle of figuring out how to optimize his party’s equipment when Sora drapes the finished scarf around his neck with a flourish, looping it two times so as to prevent the ends from dragging on the floor. Riku hides his half-smirk in it with a downwards tilt of his head, watching from the corner of his eyes as Sora stares at him in clear expectation.

“So, how is it?” Sora prompts him, ever impatient.

“Not telling who is it for, huh?” Riku says in a teasing tone.

“Oh, shut up,” Sora mumbles, giving his shoulder a light shove. Riku laughs.

“I like it,” he smiles, running his fingers over the soft material. “Even if I won’t exactly get the chance to wear it often.”

“You can bring it with you when we visit Arendelle,” Sora suggests, playing with one of the ends of the scarf. Riku is struck by the certainty in his tone -- _when_ we visit Arendelle, not _if_. It’s always a ‘when’ with Sora.

“Or Mulan’s world,” Riku concedes.

“Or Christmas Town!”

Riku buries the lower half of his face on the scarf more fully as Sora goes on about Christmas Town, smiling indulgently when Sora wonders out loud about what other holidays there might be in that world. The material still smells like the store it had been bought from, which only makes Riku’s smile grow.

“I think I wanna make a scarf for everyone,” Sora says after a while, once Riku has gone back to his game. “What color do you think Kairi’s should be?”

“Maybe some kind of baby pink?” Riku shrugs. “Or a really dark red, I guess, if you wanted to go that way instead.”

“Red like the blood of anyone who dares to stand in her way,” Sora snorts. Riku lets out a bark of laughter at the mental image of Kairi on a bloody rampage with a cutesy little scarf looped around her neck.

“Sounds great.”

“We could go to the store ourselves this time,” Sora hums. “You could help me pick out the colors for the rest of our friends.”

“Sure.”

“Some kinda orange for Axel, green for Ventus, a deep blue for Aqua…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Riku's Bad Brain continues to feed him bullshit even as Sora does his utmost to beat it off with a stick, which is a feeling I can Definitely relate to. Riku needs some more practice with shooing them, nd also with _asking_ for reassurance when he needs it. Communication is key, kids. Sora cares a lot, watches closely, but he's still not a mind-reader, close as he gets to it. If he was, they would have gotten together ages ago [cackles].  
> Spending all waking hours with someone(s) is not without its hiccups, which is something a lot of you must be getting first hand experience with given the Current Situation. Even the bestest of friends can come across lil bumps on the road, but Sora and Riku always do their best to go over them Together.  
> I'm taking my ages from the khwiki. It has Aqua be approx. 18 and Terra being approx. 20. Axel and Isa are about 26 ish, and pretty much everyone else sans Riku is 16. I'm 20 myself, and I look at all those peeps and it hits me how _young_ everyone is. Someone please come collect them and bundle them up with some warm chocolate at home, please, I'm begging you here.  
> Sora is the friend matchmaker to surpass all friend matchmakers. He just wants his friends to be friends amongst themselves!!! Is that so much to ask!!! ("it is," says Vanitas.)  
> And thus, Sora's Thots begin unravelling... >;) watch me underline the "slow" in "slow burn" like 15 times. Feelings are HARD, I dont know what the Fuck i'm feeling like 95% of the time, and I can't even begin to imagine how it'd be like to pinpoint romantic feelings for someone since I'm a disaster aroace.  
> Riku was waiting for his body to download his soul for the day, which is something that I can personally vouch for. Sometimes you just gotta lay there and Wait, man.  
> I can just see Sora and Riku blackmailing each other with Kairi's rage as a bargaining chip. "Do x and I won't tell Kairi about y." Little heathens.  
> Hope y'all are staying safe ❤️


	12. Chapter 11

Sora, Riku and Kairi visit Twilight Town some days later at Xion’s invitation. The girl had told them that Lea and Isa had finally started looking for a house of their own, so all of them could move out of that creepy old mansion; she asked if the three of them would like to see the final contestants and they had jumped right in.

They meet her at the bistro, sitting all by herself with a milkshake in front of her. She smiles widely upon catching sight of them, raising her hand to wave.

“Hey there,” she greets once they’ve reached her table. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“It has!” Sora beams. Xion motions for them to sit, taking another sip of her drink.

“You guys are the only ones that haven’t gone to visit us,” Kairi points out with a teasing smirk taking form on her lips.

“I guess that’s true,” Xion tilts her head. “But we’re together now, right?”

“Yeah,” Riku smiles.

“So, how have you been?” Xion asks, lacing her hands together atop the table. “I know you’ve all been keeping us updated, but it’s better to hear this kind of thing in person, isn’t it?”

Riku sits back as Sora launches into an overview of the events of the past month, passing by the visits they’d received and the ones they’d done; telling her more details about his friends at Radiant Garden as well as how their visit to the Sleeping Worlds had gone. Riku snorts under his breath as Sora struggles to describe the appearance of their dream eaters to someone who’s never seen one before, watching Xion get more and more confused by every word that comes out of Sora’s mouth.

“Maybe we can ask Naminé to draw them for us sometime,” Riku offers eventually, grinning at the sound of Kairi’s half-snort half-giggle.

“That would probably help,” Xion agrees, still dubious.

“Enough about us,” Kairi waves a hand once she’s regained her composure. “Tell us how the house-hunting’s going! Where’re the others?”

“They’re checking out a couple more houses,” Xion explains. “I got a little tired and I don’t have a bunch of must-haves like Roxas and Axel do, so I don’t mind letting them do the choosing,” she shrugs, then laughs a little. “Axel has all these demands-- he keeps trying to push us into getting one of those super spacious rich people houses, but Isa shuts him down every time.”

“That sounds juuuust like him,” Kairi rolls her eyes.

“What kinda place do _you_ want?” Sora asks.

“I’d like something cozy,” she stares out at the distance with a small smile. “We already stand out enough without having a flashy house...”

Riku nods in understanding. Twilight Town seems better about the rumours and whispers than the Islands, but he had still noticed a few of them as they walked to the bistro. He and Sora were proficient at completely ignoring them, but it kind of looks like some may have managed to get past Xion’s shields.

Riku sees Sora frown, probably realizing the same thing Riku had, but Xion continues before he can find the words to say.

“Isa hired a real estate agent to help us out with the whole process, right?” she starts, eyes shining with mirth. “We’ve got a _lot_ of munny saved up between the four of us from all of the missions we did in the Organization, so when Isa told the lady that there were no price limits, her eyes almost popped out of her head!”

The three of them laugh along with Xion, picturing the bug-eyed look the agent must have had at hearing such a statement from a mismatched family composed of two adults and two teenagers, none of which looked related to one another.

“She must think you guys are from the mafia or something!” Kairi snorts uglily, causing a new wave of breathless laughter.

“She _immediately_ started calling us sirs and ma’am after that,” Xion adds, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.

“I bet Axel’s ego grew about three times larger with that,” Kairi huffs amusedly.

“It did!”

“Oh!” Sora exclaims, remembering something. “Where are Hayner, Pence and Olette, by the way?”

“I think they’re doing a job for Mr. Scrooge,” Xion replies, still with a hint of mirth in her voice. “They should be done in a few hours, at most.”

Just then, they catch the sound of Roxas and Lea bickering, turning to find the two of them -- plus Isa -- making their way to the table Xion had picked. Lea’s exasperated look shifts into a wide grin when he sees them, making a beeline to Kairi’s side to mess up her hair.

“Well, if it isn’t the problem children,” Lea smirks. Kairi bats his hand away with a practiced motion, making a face at him.

“Not our fault that trouble loves to follow us,” she answers.

“Sure, keep telling yourself that,” Lea retorts.

“Been a while,” Roxas comments, echoing Xion’s earlier words.

“I know!” Sora nods.

Riku leaves his two best friends to make small talk, silently returning the nod of greeting from Isa. When the others start to bring up the pros and cons of each of the houses they visited to narrow down their choices, Sora decides to leave them to it, dragging Riku and Kairi to the inside of the bistro with a giddy smile.

“Should we even be in here?” Riku asks, shooting Sora a skeptical look.

“You guys _have_ to meet Little Chef! Plus, Uncle Scrooge probably won’t mind.”

“I don’t like that ‘probably’ in there,” Riku states, just for the record. Kairi giggles.

“Eh, it’ll be fine,” Sora insists.

Sora dashes into the kitchen with a muttered request for them to wait there, coming back a minute later with a blue rat perched on his outstretched hands.

“This is Little Chef!” he says, doing a small flourish. “I met him in the nearby woods and he’s an _amazing_ cook.”

“Is he the source of your sudden cooking prowess?” Kairi grins.

“He is! He’s got this neat little trick,” Sora tells them excitedly, directing the rat to his head. Obviously getting what Sora intended, the rat grabs a hold of two locks of hair and starts tugging, making Sora’s hands go through the motions of cutting something.

“Wow,” Kairi gasps. “He just takes over?”

“Yeah!! It’s really difficult to completely ignore his commands, though he has a hard time with fine motor control,” he winces. “Let’s not talk about how many eggs were destroyed in my time here.”

“Will do,” Riku raises an eyebrow, snark evident in his tone. Sora puffs his cheeks out at him.

“I think that’s enough, Little Chef,” Sora says, opening his hand so that the rat can run back to it. “I’d stay a while and help you out, but I’m spending some time with my friends today.”

The rat nods quietly; Riku wonders if the creature can’t communicate verbally for some reason, but shrugs the thought aside.

Sora gestures Riku and Kairi over when he enters the kitchen this time, depositing the small rat on a counter before making his way back to his friends.

“He’s the only cook in here?” Kairi asks, clearly impressed. Riku shares in the sentiment -- he had seen a _lot_ of people come and go from the bistro during his short stay at Xion’s table, and to learn that it’s all maintained by a single small rat is kind of mind-blowing.

“Yep,” Sora nods, hands on his hips.

“That’s amazing,” Riku says.

“I know, right? Let’s leave him to it and see if Roxas and the others are done yet,” Sora suggests, lacing arms with both Riku and Kairi to lead them out.

It seems that Lea, Roxas, Xion and Isa have narrowed down their choices to two houses by the time Sora, Riku and Kairi get back to their table. They’ve decided to take a final look at the two contestants -- something the agent they had hired was more than happy to arrange for, given how much money her clients had -- and Xion invites the three of them to come with. Sora agrees on a heartbeat, much to the amusement of the others.

The girl hangs back as they head towards the first house, matching Riku’s slow steps with a small smile.

“So, how are _you_ doing?” she inquires softly, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

“I’m doing okay. Really,” Riku reassures her. They had gotten a little close during the search for Sora; unlike Roxas, she harbored no ill feelings for him over what he had done over a year ago, in order to make sure Sora woke up.

“No more collapsing?”

“Nah. Sora’s been like a fungi, hanging off my arm constantly,” Riku jokes. She muffles her chuckle with a hand over her mouth.

“That doesn’t sound like a complaint,” she points out, a knowing glint in her eyes that has Riku blushing as if on demand. Xion giggles. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret,” she tells him cheekily, quickening her steps to catch up with Roxas.

A hasty glance to his right side presents him with the sight of Kairi’s little smirk, letting him know that she’s heard everything. He blushes harder -- Kairi had long stopped teasing him out loud for his massive, _universe-sized_ crush on Sora, resorting to small grins and smirks that nevertheless evoke the same reactions from him.

Sora falls into step with him next, having left Roxas to Xion. “You’re blushing,” he points out, grinning widely -- Sora has never been one to pass an opportunity for friendly, harmless teasing.

Riku draws him into a headlock before he can say anything else, rubbing his knuckles onto Sora’s scalp until the other jabs his elbow onto Riku’s hip. “Shut up, pipsqueak,” Riku tells him, messing Sora’s hair a little further.

“You’re just too stupidly tall!”

“I resent that,” Lea says, a few paces ahead of them. “If _Riku_ is stupidly tall, then what am I?”

“Extra stupid,” Roxas deadpans without missing a beat.

Lea puts on a show of being offended, amusing everyone else -- even Isa, who cracks a small smile in response. “You _wound_ me, Roxas.”

“Just wound? And here I was going for _maiming_ ,” Roxas fires back. Sora and Kairi cheer him on with loud whoops.

“Finish him, Roxas!” Kairi shouts.

“I could, but,” Roxas shrugs. “He’s not worth my time,” he says, his voice basically _dripping_ arrogance.

Lea mimics being shot through the heart, leaning heavily on an ever-suffering Isa as he laments on how mean Roxas is to him.

“This is your own doing,” Isa points out to Lea, unfazed. “A direct consequence of how much time he spent with you in his time in the Organization.”

“The student has surpassed the master,” Kairi nods solemnly.

“I need better friends,” Lea shakes his head.

“As if you could ever get any,” Roxas snarks yet again. “We’re just the unlucky bunch that got stuck with your stupid ass.”

“I’ll say,” Isa sighs, causing a fresh round of loud laughter from Sora, Kairi and Xion.

The conversation continues in this same manner all the way to the first house, much to Riku’s amusement. Spurred on by the presence of an audience as he is, Roxas refuses to give Lea even a second of peace -- with Kairi's enthusiastic cheers being especially motivating considering her own playful rapport with Lea.

The first of the final two contestants is a quaint little three-story house, made of the same brick of the surrounding buildings. The real estate agent is waiting for them just outside the door, so the four would-be buyers enter the building without preamble, but Sora, Riku and Kairi lag behind, accepting the woman’s offer to retell the house’s story.

“This house was built a few decades ago, but it’s been very well maintained. It used to be the home of a large family, but eventually they all moved out or passed away. The last owner didn’t have any living relatives to inherit the house nor his belongings, so the building has been kept as it was,” she says, then turns to Riku. “Would the three of you move in as well?”

“Uh, no. We’re just visiting,” Riku replies awkwardly.

“Ah. Would you like to be given a tour?”

“Sure,” Sora pinches in.

She walks them through the common areas -- the living room, the kitchen and the small library that doubles as a study -- telling them about the previous owners’ eccentricity, which is made pretty obvious by the trinkets and baubles that surround them wherever they go. Sora stops to pick something up more than once, turning the objects around in his hands with childlike curiosity.

The clutter that fills every nook and cranny of the building only serves to give it personality; it feels _lived-in_ in a way that reminds Riku of his own home. This is a place that has a history, just waiting to be discovered and interpreted in whichever way its future owners deem fit. Riku can only begin to imagine the secrets it holds.

The upper floors hold five bedrooms and a large balcony, which is where they find Xion. She gestures to the wide, mostly-empty space of it with a dreamy little smile.

“Wouldn’t this be the perfect spot to have a small garden?” she asks them, her eyes scanning their surroundings as if she’s picturing where everything would go.

“Yeah!” Sora nods, ever enthusiastic. “You could get some pots, maybe plant a few herbs -- it’d be nice!”

Xion hums in response, lost in her musings. The agent shows the three of them the bedrooms and bathrooms next, allowing them to catch glimpses of the other three would-be owners as they go. They go back to the living room once the tour is done, waiting for Lea, Roxas, Xion and Isa to finish their inspection.

The other finalist is a much newer building, all in glass and concrete with a large walled-in yard. It’s basically the opposite of the first house: it had a single, sprawling floor instead of three compact ones, and though the decoration was quite tasteful, it held no personality. It felt like a blank slate -- a very fancy one, sure, but a blank slate all the same.

“Well, I think we’ve seen everything we needed to see,” Lea states some time later, hands on his hips. Isa goes to talk with the agent once Roxas and Xion nod their agreement, leaving Lea to lead them all out.of the building.

“So, which one is it gonna be?” Sora raises his eyebrows, bouncing on the balls of his feet to some unknown rhythm.

“We’re only gonna make it official tomorrow ‘cause there’s all this paperwork to do and stuff,” Lea waves a hand, disgust clear in his face. Said disgust, however, is replaced by a grin not long after. “But it’s obviously gonna be the first one.”

Sora and Kairi both cheer, immediately turning to Roxas and Xion to discuss all the things they can do once they move in.

“It’s a fitting house,” Riku half-smiles at Lea. “All mismatched, but it’s what gives it personality.”

Lea huffs out a little laugh, looking over the bunch of misfits that he’s somehow found a home with. “Yeah.”

Once Isa comes back, Lea loudly declares that they _must_ get sea salt ice cream to celebrate, dragging everyone in the direction of the Tram Common to fulfill this imperative. They catch Hayner, Pence and Olette just as the three of them exit the bistro, successfully roping them in as soon as ice cream is mentioned.

“One can never reject an opportunity to have sea salt ice cream,” Pence tells a laughing Sora.

“Especially if you’re not gonna pay for it!” Hayner cheers.

“Who says we’re paying?” Roxas smirks, sidestepping Hayner’s shoulder punch with a mocking little chuckle that immediately starts a scuffle between the two of them.

“Wait,” Olette calls out a few moments later, successfully getting the attention of both boys. “Roxas, hadn’t Sora asked you to show him some skateboard tricks some time ago?”

“Oh yeah!” Sora exclaims, turning to face his Nobody with a wide grin. “We did talk about that, huh?”

Roxas scratches the back of his head. “Yeah, guess we forgot. I left mine in the underpass, so we can head there to grab it.”

“You can borrow my skateboard, Sora!” Pence pipes in, giving Sora a cheery thumbs up.

“We can go to that terrace we found last week,” Olette suggests. “It would be a nice place to skate at, I think.”

“Sounds great!” Kairi smiles.

“Then we should go to the underpass before we buy the ice cream, otherwise it’ll all melt,” Xion points out.

Lea, who had kept silent all this time, groans loudly at the prospect of being kept from his dear sea salt ice cream for more time than expected. Roxas and Xion start pulling him forward by the arms, not even batting an eye at the complaints that Lea mutters in the entire way to the underpass.

Olette shoots the three islanders a grin, obviously used to all this. “This happens _at least_ once a week,” she tells them in a conspiratorial tone.

“We love ice cream, but that guy is on an entire new level,” Pence shakes his head amusedly.

“I don’t find that hard to believe, for some reason,” Kairi snickers, prompting the rest of them to chuckle as well.

Once they’ve grabbed the skateboards, they head to the ice cream shop, being led by an enthusiastic Lea. The vendor has their order ready before they even reach the counter, wordlessly presenting a bag with ten sea salt ice creams in a way that has Kairi in stitches as they exit the shop.

Sora, Riku and Kairi are no strangers to having a shop owner memorize their regular order -- it was pretty much inevitable, in a small island such as theirs -- but the fact that the guy had added three extra bars to account for the three newcomers with absolutely no prompting cracks them up.

They eat their frozen treats on the way to the terrace Olette had mentioned, ending up with sticky hands despite their best efforts. Roxas carefully checks all of their ice cream sticks before dumping their trash in a nearby can, leading them to a small fountain afterwards so that they can wash their hands.

Riku gently bumps Sora’s shoulder with his arm upon realizing that his best friend has been uncharacteristically quiet for some time, despite the lively conversation taking place just a few paces ahead. Sora looks at him as if surprised, letting out a small chuckle when Riku raises a questioning eyebrow.

“Just got caught up thinking about something,” Sora reassures him, shifting sideways until their arms brush with every other step. “How about you? Having fun so far?”

“Yeah. It’s nice to be able to just explore a world like this, without having a mission to complete,” Riku smiles.

“It really is,” Sora nods, studying their surroundings with a pleased grin.

He sticks close to Riku instead of moving to catch up the rest of their group in the ensuing silence, beaming at him every time their gazes cross -- completely unaware of how those simple actions send Riku’s heart into overdrive.

A few blocks later, Sora grows serious again, deliberately slowing his steps; Riku follows suit without question, letting the distance between the two of them and the rest of their friends grow wider.

“Roxas doesn’t like you much, does he?” Sora inquires in a neutral tone, staring at the back of said boy for a beat before turning to Riku.

“Not really,” is Riku’s equally neutral reply.

Riku doesn’t begrudge Roxas for the resentment he still feels over Riku’s actions from a year or so ago -- he finds it completely understandable, in fact. Though Riku regretted what had to happen to the Nobody, he did not, he _could not_ regret his involvement in it outright; returning Roxas was necessary for Sora’s recovery, and Riku had long ago come to terms with the lengths he’d go ensure Sora’s safety and wellbeing.

Xion held no such ill feelings because she had returned to Sora of her own free will; it had been her choice, once presented with the facts of her existence and made aware of just what the Organization planned to do. Roxas hadn’t been given a choice -- he’d been captured, had had false memories implanted into his heart, only to realize that he would have to give up his own existence so that a boy he only knew by way of a few random dreams could wake. Many of those things had been DiZ’s -- Ansem the Wise’s -- fault, but that didn’t change the fact that Riku willingly played a part in it.

“Let him be,” Riku tells Sora, settling a hand on his shoulder. “I know you really want everyone to get along, but there are some things you just can’t force.”

“Yeah…” Sora mutters, a tad downcast. “Both of you mean a lot to me, so I just wanted you to be friends too.”

Riku can’t help the smile that blossoms at such a declaration, marvelling for the nth time at how open-hearted Sora is.

“You sap,” Riku says, because really, that’s his duty as a best friend. Sora laughs and throws an arm around Riku’s waist, synching up their steps almost effortlessly.

“You’re a closet sap and you _know_ it, Riku,” he teases with a grin.

“Such outr _ageous_ lies,” Riku sighs haughtily. Sora pokes him right between two ribs, making him yelp and squirm away from Sora’s dangerous hands.

“ _You’re_ the liar here, mister,” Sora wags his index at him.

“What are the two of you doing all the way back there, boys?” Kairi asks them in an ever-suffering tone, prompting the whole group to stop and look.

“Nothing!” Sora and Riku say at the exact same time, which only makes Kairi narrow her eyes at them.

“I don’t believe you,” she hums threateningly.

“We were just talking,” Riku shrugs, quickening his -- and Sora’s -- steps until they’ve rejoined the rest of their friends.

“Is that so?” Kairi raises an extremely dubious eyebrow.

“Give us a break, Kairi,” Sora laughs.

“Never,” she grins.

“Come here, then,” Riku snaps back, pulling her close to his other side until she copies Sora’s position with a snort.

“Hey, I wanna do that too!” Lea frowns, pulling Roxas and Xion into similar positions. Xion concedes with a small laugh, but Roxas squirms away like a grumpy cat, quickly moving out of Lea’s reach.

“Absolutely not,” Roxas spits out.

“Aww, come on, Roxy!”

“I _told_ you not to call me that,” Roxas rolls his eyes.

“Fine, fine,” Lea pouts. He lets go of Xion to pounce on Isa, putting an arm around the other’s shoulders in spite of the death glare that he gets for it. Once Isa has been successfully secured, Lea calls Xion back -- she complies with a giggle.

“Are you done?” Roxas asks with crossed arms.

“Sure,” Lea grins.

“We’re almost there,” Olette tells the three islanders.

True to Olette’s words, they reach their destination less than two minutes later: a wide terrace, hidden from sight by two small stores, overlooking the rolling hills that surround the town. Sora takes the skateboard that Pence passes to him and immediately starts skating around with Roxas, looking back at Riku every few seconds to make sure he hasn’t accidentally gone too far.

Riku hangs back with Kairi and Xion as the rest of their group move ahead to cheer Sora and Roxas on; Lea and Hayner almost immediately start to yell dares at the two of them, though they focus more on Roxas at first.

“Oh, right!” Kairi exclaims suddenly, getting the attention of her two companions. “Remember how I said I was going to talk with the King about setting up a school where we could finish our education?”

“I think so,” Riku says; Xion nods at the same time.

“I managed to get in contact with Queen Minnie instead, since it looks like the King is a bit busy after spending so much time away, and I’ve got good news!” Kairi grins.

“They’re going to do it!?” Xion asks, beginning to smile.

“Yep! In fact, they had already started planning for something like this months ago! The Queen said that she learned from Donald and Goofy that most of us have either been out of school for years or have never gone, period, so she got into contact with a few teachers and stuff to get it set up,” she explains, shifting her weight from foot to foot in her excitement.

“That’s surprisingly convenient,” Riku remarks.

“I know, right? They were going to mention it to us after the final battle, but then…” she deflates a little, shooting their energetic best friend a long glance. Riku resists the urge to do the same, looking down at the pavement instead. Kairi summons her previous cheer by force. “Anyway! Now that we’re all back and winding down, they decided we should get to enjoy the summer, so the current plans are for it to start in the fall.”

“How would it work?” Xion tilts her head.

“Well, that’s the tricky part. We’re all from different worlds, so it would be super inconvenient to have to go there and back every single day,” Kairi scratches her head. “The Queen said that the Castle could definitely house all of us, but that they’d have to figure out a schedule so we could spend a few days at home and stuff.”

“So we’d probably live there for a few days and go home for the rest, huh,” Riku says.

“Something like that, yeah.”

Xion smiles at the both of them. “It’d be fun to live at the same place for a while,” she muses, clasping her hands in front of her.

Kairi nods enthusiastically. “Yeah! We could have soooo many sleepovers,” she laughs.

“And we’d get to train together again!” Xion nods.

“Get the dorm experience that books always mention,” Riku half-smirks.

“Ohh, you’re right,” Kairi hums with wonder in her voice.

“We can tell the others about this, right?” Xion inquires.

“Of course! I only got to know this yesterday, so I decided to wait ‘til I could tell you all in person.”

“And then you forgot about it until there were only two people around to hear you,” Riku snarks, playfully messing up her red hair.

“Hey, that’s not my fault!” Kairi laughs, ducking out from his reach.

“ _Suuuuure_ ,” Riku grins insolently. Kairi slaps his arm to show her displeasure of his tone; Riku clutches the area she’d struck, pretending that it hurts terribly -- a show that he and Sora have put on countless times over the years.

Only, this time it had actually _stung_ ; yet another piece of evidence of how much stronger she has become due to her dedication and determination to catching up with her two best friends.

The conversation between the three of them tapers off after that. Some minutes later, Sora pulls Riku to another section of the terrace so that he and Roxas can perform tricks on an elevated ridge nearby and Olette fills the space he had left behind, starting up an enthusiastic discussion with Kairi and Xion.

A quick survey of the entire terrace allows Riku to notice that Hayner and Pence have retreated to a private corner, appearing to be caught in a quiet but heated debate, complete with sweeping gestures that remind Riku of Sora when he gets enthusiastic.

The sound of small wheels running on the pavement is as constant a sound in here as the unseen soundtrack of the Sleeping Worlds: Sora and Roxas skate in wide circles whenever they’re not daring each other to do increasingly reckless stunts. Lea and Isa, meanwhile, have moved closer to the high ledge that separates their quiet terrace from the hills beyond the town.

This leaves Riku all by himself, leaning casually against a wall, content to just take in the comfortable atmosphere that surrounds them. Sora shoots him a few frowns every now and then, obviously not very happy with the fact that he’s alone, but Riku only smiles back until Sora huffs and goes back to his conversation with Roxas.

After a few minutes of this, Isa abandons Lea to come stand by Riku instead, nodding respectfully in greeting before taking a spot next to him against the wall.

“Are you standing here because you still don’t feel well enough to join, or simply because you’re content to just watch?” Isa asks, no judgement whatsoever in his voice. Riku looks at him with a small amount of surprise, finding Isa’s expression to be completely neutral aside from a dash of genuine curiosity.

Riku huffs amusedly as he goes back to watching Sora and Roxas, shifting his stance so that he’s leaning more of his weight on the wall.

“Mostly the latter. While I do get tired very quickly if I’m doing anything more taxing than sitting or standing around, it’s nice to do just this, you know?” he sighs, crossing his arms loosely in front of his chest. “When I was younger… I hated seeing them have fun without me. I hated feeling left out or left behind, so I usually butted in whatever they were doing.

“But after everything that’s happened, I don’t really feel like that anymore. We don’t have to be together _every single minute_ for us to remain good friends -- I know that they still care about me even when they’re spending time with their other friends, so I’m happy to just stay here and watch.”

Isa nods in quiet understanding. “You’ve grown more confident in your bonds with them.”

“Yeah,” Riku chuckles. “Nothing like a war to put them to the test, huh?” he raises an eyebrow, pleased to receive a little smirk from Isa in return.

Lea convinces everyone to head to the Clock Tower half an hour later to partake in their tradition of watching the sunset at the end of the day, herding them all out with a healthy dose of snark. Roxas skates ahead of their entire group, doing the occasional spin or jump whenever there’s a ridge or ledge nearby. Sora, meanwhile, skates slowly enough to keep pace with Riku and Kairi, talking excitedly about the moves Roxas had shown him earlier.

Once they get to the long stairs towards the top of the Clock Tower, Kairi breaks away from them with a smirk. She checks that there’s no one else around before calling for Lea’s attention, proceeding to show off her new flowmotion skills to help her climb to the top much faster than any of them.

“That’s not fair!” Lea shouts out after her indignantly. Kairi blows a raspberry in his direction, cackling as she continues to jump from wall to wall. Lea turns to Sora and Riku instead, frowning with displeasure. “It’s not fair for you guys to hoard those skills! Didn’t your parents ever teach you to share?”

“We did share,” Riku smirks. “Just with her.”

“Well then, share with us too!” Lea insists, making Xion muffle a giggle with her hand.

“That’s enough,” Isa shakes his head, pushing Lea up the stairs with a heavy hand on his back.

“I wasn’t _done_!”

“Maybe we can set something up later,” Sora smiles, holding his hands in front of him in a pacifying gesture.

“Don’t encourage him, Sora,” Isa tells him, already halfway to the next floor.

“I’ll hold you to that!” Lea’s voice echoes from above.

“Now look what you got us into,” Riku huffs, doing his best to contain his smile. Sora laughs, unapologetic.

“It was bound to happen at some point,” he shrugs, grinning up at Riku. He’s got a point, but Riku isn’t about to admit that, so he ruffles Sora’s hair instead.

“Come on, we’re getting left behind,” he says.

“Right,” Sora grins.

x

Aqua has always loved being around water. Terra and Ventus still tease her about it to this day, joking about how fitting it was that someone with her name would feel so relaxed around _water_ , but it wasn’t like Aqua could help either of those things.

One of the consequences of her love of water was that showers were sacred to her. There’s nothing quite like being able to wash off all the grime and sweat her skin had acquired over the day; it was one of the things she missed the most while in the Realm of Darkness, so she makes sure to appreciate them tenfold now that she’s back.

There’s a lot of work to be done in the Land of Departure if they’re to fulfill their wish of transforming it into a keyblade school in the future. There are areas of the castle that are still unknown to her and Terra even after living in it for so long; secrets that Master Eraqus never got the chance to pass on. Thinking about their Master still makes her heart ache hollowly, but she chases the thought away by tilting her head upwards to meet the water spray.

They’re lucky to have Naminé and Rikuto helping them out with cleaning everything up -- if it weren’t for them, the entire process would likely take even longer than it already will. Vanitas, meanwhile, doesn’t really help; he still keeps to himself more than anything, only coming out of his hiding holes to set up some trap or another for Aqua, Terra and Ventus.

Aqua sighs quietly. A part of her still waits with bated breath for Vanitas to eventually decide that this ‘second chance’ business isn’t his thing and attack them again, even as she tries her utmost to shut it down. Terra and Ventus have been able to set such fears aside fairly quickly, but they linger in Aqua’s mind despite her best efforts.

Vanitas’ reclusion and mischief certainly don’t help matters, either. It’s hard to believe that he’s changed when she doesn’t even _see_ said change with her own eyes -- all she has is what she hears from Ventus and Naminé. Aqua is resolved to try, though; it won’t do her well to have dark thoughts like these poisoning her mind from the inside out.

She’s had enough of those in the Realm of Darkness to last a lifetime.

So once Aqua found out via Naminé that Vanitas had an interest in art, she tried using that to approach him. She _loved_ to create, no matter the medium -- knitting, metalwork, sewing, or whatever new thing had caught her eye. Some of her fondest memories were of her working on her latest project while Terra carved wood next to her, with a gentle breeze coming in through the wide windows of the castle.

Even so, Vanitas continued to ignore her.

Most days, she felt like it was no use -- felt like she would have to live with this fear inside her heart for the rest of her days, so long as Vanitas drew breath. Her attempts of rationalizing it all away never work; even the most solid of arguments are no match for that voice deep inside her mind that whispers _‘but what if…’_ no matter how hard she tries to shut it down.

She knows, rationally, that Vanitas would gain nothing from attacking any of them aside from some momentary satisfaction. Doing so, in fact, would most likely cost him the few friends he has; Aqua can’t see Naminé staying friends with him if he hurt anyone just because he felt like it, not to mention the fact that everyone else would hunt him down if he dared to do anything funny.

The reasons he had for attacking Ventus, Terra and herself back then -- and more recently, too -- don’t exist anymore. His heart is not incomplete like it had been eleven years ago, so fighting against Ventus would get him nowhere; furthermore, many of the things he’d done had been due to Xehanort’s orders, like letting the Unversed loose and attacking her and the others, and _that_ particular issue was thankfully taken care of for good.

 _I’ll just have to keep trying_ , Aqua thinks with a sigh. Deciding that she’s spent long enough in the shower today, she turns it off, exhaling softly as she squeezes the excess water out of her hair before reaching for her fluffy towel.

She only realizes that something’s wrong a quarter of an hour later, when she goes to touch her face and finds her skin to be distressingly sticky. She sniffs the back of her hand with a frown; her stomach drops when she notices the faint but unmistakable smell of candy clinging to her entire body.

It doesn’t take her very long to connect the dots. A quick disassembly of her shower head provides her with undeniable proof: a handful of barely-there remnants of the hard candy that Ventus had bought a huge bag of just last week. Ventus, for all that he _can_ be mischievous, would never do something like this to her, so there’s really no question as to who is to blame for this.

Aqua grits her teeth, taking a few deep breaths in an attempt to stop herself from doing something truly stupid, like barging into Vanitas’ room with her keyblade out and a war cry on her lips for his crimes against her sacred ground -- the shower. No, she’ll have to be sneakier than this -- Vanitas wouldn’t let himself be caught so easily, of that she is certain.

“If this is how you wanna do it, this is how we’re _gonna do it_ ,” Aqua hisses hotly into the silence of her own bathroom. “I’m going to make you _regret_ this, Vanitas.”

Her mind set, she scoops out the remaining candy and drops it into the trash, reassembling the shower head so that she can take yet another shower, since her first one had been tampered with. Not that she minds much -- she always had her best ideas mid-shower.

Vanitas wouldn’t know what hit him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyy, now I've finally given all the trios and gangs some much deserved attention! (￣▽￣)ノ I worried a lot about the length of this chapter cause I didn't want the chapter where I finally gave the Twilight gang some time in the spotlight to be the shortest of them all, but it ended up being 6,3k. I don't know why I'm still surprised at my own bullshit.  
> Gotta say I love the idea of Sora just barging into the bistro's kitchen to steal away the sole cook so that he can present Little Chef to his friends. Also, Remy is a real-life got to manage the entire kitchen by himself, is2g. Can you IMAGINE how many orders he must do per day, with how popular the bistro is? Poor rat.  
> Sora's quietly had some Interesting Thoughts™️ on this chapter... 👀 I thought of doing his pov so we could see them live, but then I thought of all the conversations he'd participate on and I ran to Riku instead, my fellow introvert. He can just zone out and then I don't have to write the others! What a dream.  
> I had been a lil afraid of writing Roxas, but I think I managed to do a fair enough job? Figuring out how to do it took me some time. His baseline is way sassier than Riku's or Kairi's, for example, and then I also had to figure out how he'd still feel regarding Riku for the whole stuff at the end of Days/start of KH2. Roxas disliking Riku is a common thing in fics, it's basically fanon by now, and I wanted to have my own take in it.  
> It's not that Roxas isn't happy with where they all are now, or resents the overall outcome; he managed to get back together with his friends as his own person after everything, which is good! It's great! But he still was forced o give up his own life to guarantee that Sora woke up, when he had no real reason to care about Any of that — and like it or not, Riku was a part of that. I can see them becoming (mostly) civilized rivals later on, building up a base of snark and competition as Sora watches on with a hesitant smile whenever they get too close to hurting each other on a spar or something of the sort. Roxas would be _relentless_ in teasing Riku about his fucking universe-sized crush on Sora, saying that he never gave him permission to sleep in the same bed as Sora with the excuse that he's Sora's nobody, so he's got a say in this.  
> Remember the line about how Riku was a closet sap? My beta left a comment on that line on the doc saying "among other things..." which I just thought I should share with y'all. Also, Sora and Riku will eventually need to participate in a huge sleeping pile somewhere so that everyone else can get the flowmotion moves, it's inevitable. God help them then. The lilttle Moment™️ between Riku and Isa took me entirely by surprise, I had never even considered how the two of them could interact, but I was pleased by the result! :3  
> Aqua, the Appointed Mature Adult, has snapped... oh no. It begins >:^)


	13. Chapter 12

Monday morning finds Sora and Riku lazing about in the latter’s living room. Hoshi had left for her shift just half an hour earlier, so the two of them were the only ones in the house -- though Kairi had promised to drop by in the afternoon.

Sora had tried finding something to watch on the TV, but it had been to no avail. Riku is reading a book just on the other end of the sofa; Sora has thought about asking him to read it out loud, but his best friend is already halfway through and would most certainly throttle Sora if asked to explain the entire plot up until then, so that isn’t an option.

He could look for something else to do, but he’d left his gummi phone under Riku’s pillow and his knitting materials were still in the bag he’d dropped by Riku’s desk upstairs yesterday, after they had switched houses again. Plus, if he went to get either of those things, he’d have to ask Riku to come with as well, which he wasn’t particularly up to doing; his best friend looked quite comfortable, sitting cross-legged next to him and doing his best to ignore Sora’s toes poking his lower ribs at irregular intervals.

So Sora lets his mind wander instead, adjusting his position on the sofa to press the entire sole of his foot to Riku’s side, and finds himself thinking about how Ventus had invited the two of them -- plus Kairi -- to visit the Land of Departure after learning of the visit they’d done to Twilight Town last Friday. He’s eager to show them some of the fruits of his labor in the castle and surrounding areas, which is a feeling Sora can definitely understand.

Sora suggested that they could do the healing session there instead, but Aqua rejected his idea. She argued that it would be difficult for them to get home once it was done -- they would be too tired to pilot the gummi ship afterwards, not to mention the fact that they would still need to row back to the Main Island before they got a chance to _really_ rest. As such, they all agreed to go over on Thursday, with the session taking place on Wednesday as usual.

Visiting Twilight Town had been loads of fun! Sora is happy that his friends have finally found a house of their own. Not only that, but Roxas and Xion have sent him lots of pictures from the stores they visited over the weekend in their search for new household items, even letting him sometimes help them choose which thing to buy. He could barely wait to see how the house would look like in a few weeks, once they had truly settled in.

Thinking about their time in Twilight Town reminds Sora of a thought he’d had while walking around with his friends; something that seemed to be connected to whatever it was that Kairi wanted him to figure out.

Sora isn’t a stranger to having whispers following him as he walks around some world or another. People tend to notice him -- be it because he has no volume control or because of his strange clothes, or any number of things Sora has never really cared about. He stands out; even more so in the handful of times in which he’d _had_ to summon his keyblade within sight of a crowd. It’s just part of the job, he supposes.

But last week, he’d heard a type of whisper he hadn’t encountered before: compliments. Not directed at _himself_ , mind you, but compliments all the same -- coupled with muffled little squeals and a fair amount of giggling, just like the ones he remembered from school.

The whispers themselves had been about Axel and Isa; Sora had heard two girls talking about their appearances while their group walked by, letting out dreamy sighs over how tall they were, or how strong Isa looked, or even Axel’s bad boy vibe. Neither of these comments had been heard by Axel and Isa -- both of them had been walking a fair way ahead of Sora when this happened, fully focused on the lively conversation happening around them instead.

But _Sora_ heard them. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have given those whispers any mind: he’s not blind; he _knows_ his friends are prettier than the average person. But having a stranger point out details about the physical appearance of one of his friends had led Sora into thinking about beauty again, which in turn reminded him of Kairi’s words and the unsatisfying solution Sora had reached regarding what she could have meant by them.

It made him realize that while he knows _objectively_ that most of his friends can be considered attractive -- Riku included -- he doesn’t think about any of them in the same way he thinks about Riku. He doesn’t take note of how they look at any given day, other than a quick check to see how they’re feeling -- if they look tired, upset, content, or sad.

He doesn’t spend time thinking about how nice their hair look on that particular day, or how well an article of clothing fits them; he also doesn’t study how their muscles flex as they move. Some of it could be just coexistence, but the longer Sora thinks about all of this, the more incriminating evidence he finds in his own memories; besides, he’s never really looked at Kairi in the same way, which is the final blow to this coexistence idea.

So, Sora _definitely_ looks at Riku in a way that is different from how he looks at _any_ of his other friends.

He’s pretty sure that _this_ is what Kairi had been trying to get him to notice. He’d probably not have thought of this without her encouragement, to be honest. It took her words, a snippet of overheard conversation, and _days_ of thinking for him to get up to this point, after all.

Does… does this mean that he is _attracted_ to Riku? It seems like the logical conclusion, see. If you caught yourself appreciating someone’s physical looks, that’s what it usually meant, right? Is he finally experiencing a crush? Is it even okay to have a crush on your best friend?

Sora’s fingers itch for his gummi phone -- Kairi wouldn’t judge him for asking her those questions, right? She’s the one who’s led him down this line of thought, in the first place, so it was only fair for her to help him deal with the aftermath. It would have to wait, though -- Sora doesn’t think he can play it cool if he went to get his gummi phone now, which means Riku would definitely notice him acting weird and would consequently ask him about it. Just keeping his leg from bouncing is already taking a _ridiculous_ amount of brainpower; walking around is completely out of question.

He’ll be fine -- _they’ll_ be fine. People do this all the time, don’t they? Sora will whine to Kairi, she’ll roll her eyes and then assure him that this is completely normal, that it doesn’t have to mean anything. Just because Sora’s a late bloomer or something doesn’t mean this has to be the end of the world.

He just needs to keep it cool until he can send Kairi a message.

Sora very nearly jumps out of his skin when Riku suddenly grabs his left ankle, moving Sora’s restless toes away from the sensitive skin of his ribcage with a huff.

“It’d be nice if you could stop poking me in the ribs,” Riku says, keeping his hand wrapped securely around Sora’s ankle.

“Sorry,” Sora mumbles, fighting to keep himself still.

Riku’s hand feels like a brand on Sora’s skin, warm and heavy, his hold firm but not too tight. In the silence that follows, all that Sora can hear is the rush of blood in his ears -- which only gets louder the longer Riku stares at him with that considering little crease between his eyebrows, to the point where Sora starts to wonder if he’ll eventually just explode from the tension.

“You’ve been oddly quiet for the past half hour,” Riku points out, his thumb moving back and forth in a motion that would be soothing had the situation been any different. “Thinking up anything interesting?”

Sora opens his mouth, mentally scrambling for a thought that isn’t related to his possible, probable crush on his dazzling best friend. He’d been thinking about their visit to the Land of Departure earlier, hadn’t he? He could use that.

“Just thinking about how the Land of Departure will be like, now that they’re cleaning it up,” Sora tries, his smile tinged with uncertainty.

God, he hopes Riku doesn’t see this for the cover-up that it is.

“Oh, that’s right. The last time you went there was before the final battle,” Riku muses, his gaze drifting away from Sora for a brief moment. “But yeah, I’m looking forward to that too -- I know it’s gonna take at least a few years until their keyblade school starts up, but I can’t wait to see how their ideas will play out in real life.”

“Yeah! I bet Aqua would be a great teacher,” Sora grins.

Riku laughs under his breath. “Totally. Maybe we should start calling her Master Aqua already?” he suggests with a playful grin.

“Only if you’re ready to be called Master Riku,” Sora fires back, laughing loudly at how Riku wrinkles his nose in discomfort.

“God, no. That’s too weird.”

Sora doesn’t bother with hiding his guffaw. “But you _are_ a Keyblade Master, so it’s only fair!” he argues, poking Riku’s thigh with his heel.

“I’m not even a legal adult yet,” Riku protests. “‘Master Riku’ sounds so old!”

This, of course, only makes Sora laugh harder. “You already have the hair to match it!” he gets out between hearty chuckles.

“Oh, you little--” Riku scowls, wasting no time in running his blunt nails down the sole of Sora’s still-captive foot and expertly dodging the resulting kick from Sora’s free leg.

“Stop, stop!!!” Sora implores as he laughs, thrashing wildly in a desperate effort to get away from Riku’s merciless hands; Riku struggles just as hard to keep a hold on him, digging his fingers on the inside of Sora’s foot in a motion that has Sora almost howling.

Riku’s book and the sofa’s throw pillows all end up on the floor as a result of their scruffle, which ends when Sora finally manages to escape Riku’s clutches, curling up into a ball on his end of the sofa to keep himself out of his best friend’s reach as both of them struggle to catch their breath.

“I hate you so much,” Sora hisses, narrowing his eyes at Riku’s unapologetic grin.

“Sure, keep telling yourself that,” Riku says, sounding full of himself.

Sora would kick him if that didn’t involve leaving himself wide open for another round of ruthless torture; as it stands, he settles for sticking his tongue out instead -- pouting when Riku laughs at the childish display.

“Was that all? You were thinking awfully hard for a moment there,” his best friend smiles, reaching out surreptitiously to touch one of Sora’s toes and snickering when Sora scrambles further away.

“Leave my feet alone!” Sora scowls.

“You were the one who wouldn’t stop poking me with them!”

“And now I’m keeping them to myself!”

“Too late,” Riku smirks.

Sora reaches out to slap Riku’s approaching hand, not realizing that he’s moving into a trap: Riku grabs his outstretched arm in a firm grip, pulling on him until Sora’s back is pressed to Riku’s front, dodging his sharp elbows with practiced motions as he attacks Sora’s ribs until Sora is gasping for breath. He really should have known better than to fall for such an obvious ploy -- it wasn’t as if that was the first time Riku had used a move like that against him.

But he _had_ fallen for it, landing himself in a position that made him absolutely certain that some higher being out there in the wide universe was laughing uproariously at him, calling all their buddies to come look at the poor mortal who was about to have a heart attack because his best friend decided that pulling him to his lap was a great idea.

Sora can feel Riku’s chest move against his back with every inhale and exhale. Riku’s warm breath ghosts across his shoulder and his quiet little chuckle is released distressingly close to Sora’s ear, sending goosebumps all over; his arms encircle Sora loosely, with his hands coming to rest on Sora’s drawn-up knees.

Sora prays like _hell_ that he isn’t blushing as hard as he thinks he is, angling his face away from Riku’s just in case. Dear god, how do people _deal_ with this kind of stuff on a daily basis?

“So,” Riku hums, letting his jaw rest against the side of Sora’s head despite the unruly hair that pokes his skin as a result. “I ended up not giving you time to answer my question.”

Sora rewinds their conversation in his mind until he comes across said question. He forces the tension out of his body with a long sigh, leaning more securely against his best friend as he thinks of how he could reply.

“Hearing about their plans makes me wonder about what we’re gonna be doing in five or ten years,” Sora says at last, dropping his head on Riku’s shoulder. “That’s what pretty much everyone is thinking about these days, isn’t it? Aqua, Terra and Ventus with the keyblade school -- which Vanitas, Rikuto and Naminé will probably help out at -- and also Roxas, Xion, Axel and Isa with their wish to have as normal a life as possible now that Xehanort has been defeated... “

“But you don’t know where we fit in all that?” Riku asks softly, his fingers drumming an absent-minded beat on Sora’s knees.

“I guess so?” Sora tilts his head backwards to stare at the ceiling. “I can’t see you, me and Kairi doing either of those things, or at least not full-time, but whenever I try to think of what we could be doing instead, I... I just draw a blank.”

Riku huffs out in amusement. “You’ve never really concerned yourself with the future, so I’m not surprised by that,” he slightly teases.

Sora grins all the same, adjusting his position so that he can be face to face with Riku again -- his previous nerves washed away by the soft familiarity of this entire scene. “Wellll, I never saw a reason to.”

And it was the honest truth; Sora had never been the type to spend hours listing all the ways in which his life could be better, like he saw some of the kids at school do. All he needs to be happy is his home and his friends; everything else is a bonus. If it hadn’t been for Riku’s relentless desire to leave the Islands and see what wonders the universe had to offer, Sora doubts that he would have ever tried to leave their quiet little home.

He’s never had any particularly firm ideas of what he wants his future to be like. He’s always just assumed that one day he’d settle down with a nice girl, find some job or another, maybe build a family of his own -- live the life that everyone else on the Islands lived. He used to love the idea of going on an adventure and making amazing discoveries, of course; but then again, which kid didn’t?

Sora has also never felt a pull towards any career, either. He’d cycled through dozens of them as a child, sure, but none of them had ever _clicked_ , you know. His parents were quick to reassure him that sometimes it took until you were an adult for something like that to happen -- though sometimes it _never_ happened -- but it still felt weird to not have a response at the tip of his tongue for whenever peers and adults alike asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.

But then the keyblade had appeared in his hands, and Sora found something he could be _good_ at, just like his mom was amazing as a nurse, or like how Riku’s dad had been an incredibly talented musician, if the stories their parents told them were anything to go by. Sora could _save_ people, could help and explore and _discover_ , just like he and Riku had dreamed of doing when they were kids.

Now, Sora can’t see himself doing anything else.

“What do _you_ want to do?” Sora asks his best friend, steadily holding Riku’s gaze despite the butterflies that insist on fluttering about his ribcage.

Riku shifts his legs, jostling Sora in the process. “I don’t know,” he responds, looking away with a sigh. “Well, I have an idea,” he amends, “but nothing concrete.”

Sora patiently waits for him to elaborate, but Riku remains silent.

“Yeah?” he encourages, raising his eyebrows. “And what is it?”

“I don’t want to settle down just yet,” Riku confesses hesitantly. “After all that’s happened, Destiny Islands doesn’t feel like a prison anymore, but that doesn’t mean I want to just-- stop, I guess. Stop travelling, seeing new worlds and stuff.”

Sora makes a little hum of understanding, nodding slowly. “I don’t want to stop either,” he admits. Riku raises his head to meet Sora’s gaze in a sharp motion, studying his expression for any signs of insincerity and relaxing minutely when he finds none.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Sora frowns slightly, “There’s still so much to see out there! For starters, I still need to take you and Kairi to all the worlds I visited, you dummy,” he explains, giving Riku’s shoulder a light shove.

Riku starts to smile. “Is that so?”

“Yeah! I have to show you guys the skyscrapers at San Fransokyo, the oasis at Pride Lands, the open seas of the Caribbean, the palace in Agrabah, Queen Elsa’s _amazing_ ice magic,” he lists off, counting the worlds he’s been to on his fingers. “Not to mention Atlantica! And we _have_ to go see the lantern festival at the Kingdom of Corona next year, too!”

Riku’s smile grows the more he babbles, so Sora keeps going until his best friend’s eyes are half-shut from the size of his grin.

“Sounds like you’ve got it all planned out,” Riku remarks once Sora has run out of worlds to mention.

“Well, I’ve got the _ideas_. The planning’s always been _your_ thing,” Sora grins.

“Figures,” Riku rolls his eyes, but his smile is still far too wide, so its effect is completely neutralized.

They sit in companionable silence for a while, but then a mildly distressing thought occurs to Sora.

“Kairi would want to come with us... right?” he asks in a quiet tone, worrying his lower lip.

“I think she would,” Riku replies, fiddling with the hem of Sora’s tank top. “But we should still ask her about it.”

Sora stares at their blurry reflection on the TV, trying not to fidget too much. Travelling the universe with Riku would be tons of fun, but he’d definitely miss Kairi if she refused to come with them for any reason.

He banishes the cloying feeling of uncertainty with a shake of his head -- there’s no point in worrying about Kairi’s response if they haven’t even asked her yet.

“We should find the rest of the new Seven Princesses,” Sora says. “Then we could do a better job of protecting them in case anything happened.”

“I really wonder why there weren’t people keeping track of them all this time,” Riku muses, frowning in displeasure. “Maleficent was just able to kidnap them with no resistance. That’s not right.”

“Yeah,” Sora agrees, a little downcast. “But! That’s the entire point of starting a keyblade school, isn’t it-- so that we’ll eventually have enough well-trained people to keep the worlds safe!”

Riku gives him a half-smile and a hair ruffle. “Sure is.”

“We’d be the explorers, going from world to world to make sure there’s no one looking to cause trouble,” Sora nods determinedly. Riku’s smile grows.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us, then.”

“We do! There’s a _lot_ of stars in the sky, just waiting for us to find them.”

“And as a bonus, we could scout for potential wielders,” Riku points out.

“Oh, you’re _right_! I hadn’t thought of that,” Sora rubs his nose.

“So that’s really what you wanna do? Go around the worlds, explore, have an adventure?” Riku asks him, catching his gaze and holding fast.

“Yeah,” Sora replies immediately. He can do good things with the abilities he’s been given -- he’s certainly not about to let them collect dust when he could be helping people, keeping the worlds safe from heartless or any other possible threat.

“That’s good,” Riku smiles.

“What about you? You’d come with me, right?”

“Of course,” Riku declares, as if there had never been any doubt.

Sora figures that there hadn’t been, not really; exploring the universe had been Riku’s dream first, after all -- _he_ was the one who had worked day and night to make their little raft, while Sora and Kairi went along because they were his best friends and because if one of them was planning to set out into the unknown, then the other two surely wouldn’t be far behind. They were better together, despite the universe’s damnedest attempts to keep them apart.

“Good,” Sora exhales, relaxing into a slouch. “Travelling with Donald and Goofy is great, but it’s really high time we set out on our _own_ adventure,” he grins.

Riku smirks. “Better not let Donald hear you say that.”

“Oh, shush,” Sora huffs.

“We should probably get started on lunch before we get too hungry to make a proper meal,” Riku glances at the little digital clock that sits close to the TV. “Come on, up you go, before you make my legs fall off.”

“ _You’re_ the one that pulled me to your lap, you sandhead!”

“Hmm, what was that? Didn’t quite catch it,” Riku smirks. Sora shoves a throw pillow on his face in retaliation.

They chatter about whatever comes to Sora’s mind as they cook, working side by side like the well-oiled machine that they are. Sora insists on making dessert, arguing that Mama Hoshi deserves to have something nice to eat when she comes home from work, so Riku ends up finishing lunch on his own as Sora figures out what he can do with the ingredients they have. Once the sweet treat has been put on the fridge and they’ve finally eaten, the two of them head upstairs.

Sora tries not to fidget too much as he grabs his gummi phone, checking it for new messages and wondering if it’d be too weird to set up camp in the hallway in order to text Kairi with relative privacy. He’s saved from that line of thought by Riku declaring that he’s going to take a shower, however, leaving Sora all alone in the bedroom in the meantime.

**Sora:** kairi

 **Sora:** kairi i gotta ask u a very important question

 **Sora:** kairi look at ur phoneeeeeeeee

 **Kairi:** i was having lunch, sora, sheesh 🙄

 **Kairi:** what’s the question?

Sora wastes at least three minutes worrying his lower lip, unable to decide how to phrase his question. Kairi, bless her soul, simply waits for him to gather his thoughts instead of hurrying him along.

Sora takes a deep breath.

**Sora:** it’s totally normal to have a crush on one of your friends, right?

 **Sora:** or is that too weird???

Kairi spends a long time typing after that; Sora’s almost climbing up the _walls_ by the time she finally sends her reply.

**Kairi:** of course it’s normal! It’s not weird at all to have crushes on your friends, especially if you hang out with them a lot. And it doesn’t have to change anything, unless you want it to! Sometimes they fade away with time, sometimes they grow deeper, and sometimes they just stay there in the back of your mind without really doing anything, sometimes for years

Sora exhales slowly, shakily, feeling most of his nerves about this whole thing melt away. If Kairi says it’s okay, then it’s okay -- Sora would trust her with his _life_ , so trusting her with this is no big deal.

**Kairi:** is this about riku?

Sora mumbles under his breath, cursing the fact that Kairi had to ask. Not that he didn’t think she’d be able to figure it out; he just hoped she wouldn’t _ask_ him about it so directly.

**Sora:** 😶

 **Kairi:** gonna take that as a yes

 **Kairi:** you know that pretty much all of us have had at least a little crush on riku over the years, right?

 **Kairi:** even the boys

 **Kairi:** even _tidus_

 **Sora:** _what??????_

 **Kairi:** ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

 **Sora:** how was i supposed to notice that???????

 **Kairi:** oh, sora

 **Kairi:** you really are hopeless

 **Sora:** rude

 **Kairi:** should be an hour tops til i get there

 **Kairi:** do you need anything else?

 **Sora:** nothing that cant wait til ur here

 **Kairi:** try not to stress too much about it, ok?

 **Kairi:** everything’ll be fine!

 **Sora:** thanks, kai

 **Kairi:** 😘

Riku reenters the bedroom before Sora ends up falling into the rabbit hole of thinking about how many crushes Riku has been the subject of over the years, providing a distraction Sora is very much thankful for -- even if said distraction is staring at him, which had stopped being something safe to do around two hours ago.

“So, what do you want to do today?” Riku asks him, running the towel over his hair one more time before he deposits it on the hook behind the door. He had been the one to pick everything they did yesterday, so Sora doesn’t insist that he choose instead.

“We only have like fifty or so pages of _The Sea Of Monsters_ left, right? We could finish that! And if Kairi still hasn’t arrived by the time that happens, we could start on _The Titan’s Curse_ already.”

“Alright,” Riku nods, going over to his desk to pick up the two books. “Do you wanna read them here?”

“Nah, better in the living room. If Kairi finds us in the bedroom she’s gonna accuse us of not moving all day,” Sora shrugs.

“I can hear her lecture already,” Riku snickers. Sora nods in solemn agreement.

By the time Kairi arrives, they’re already twenty-odd pages into _The Titan’s Curse_ , with one of Riku’s hands buried in Sora’s hair and Sora’s gummi phone lying abandoned atop his stomach, still playing the cheery tune of a minigame.

“Did that lazy bum fall asleep?” she asks in a teasing tone.

Sora immediately snaps his eyes open, blowing a raspberry in her direction. “I did not!”

“He gets all grumpy if you imply that he has,” Riku smirks, keeping his voice low as if he’s letting Kairi into a great secret. Sora makes a noise of protest.

“Well, can you really blame us for it?” she raises an eyebrow, looking at a disgruntled Sora. “It’s not like you have a great track record with books, you know.”

“With _reading_ them!” Sora insists.

“Don’t argue with him,” Riku shakes his head.

“Alright then,” Kairi shrugs, shoving Sora’s legs to the side so that she can sit on the sofa as well. “So what are you boys reading?”

“A series I bought some months ago,” Riku replies.

“It has the gods from Herc’s world in it!” Sora grins.

“Really? That’s weird,” Kairi frowns.

Riku snorts. “We thought so too, but it’s a super interesting read. We’re on book three of five,” he passes her said book, letting her turn it over her hands. “I looked into it a little and it looks like there’s a continuation that’s about to be finished.”

Sora gasps, sitting up to give Riku an accusing glare. “You didn’t tell me that!”

“Sorry, must’ve slipped my mind.”

“But this is great! We have to buy the rest!”

“Let’s finish this one series first,” Riku chuckles, standing firm despite Sora’s pout.

“What’s the name of the first book?” Kairi asks, returning the book to Riku.

“ _The Lightning Thief_. Why, did you get interested? I can lend you the first two, if you want.”

“It looks pretty good,” Kairi nods. “Also, why is it that you’ve never read out loud to _me_ , Ri-ku?” she grins deviously.

“You never asked!”

“That’s a lame excuse,” Kairi sticks her tongue out.

“If you catch up fast, you could come over when we read this one!” Sora points at the blue book currently in the coffee table. “We just started it, so we can wait for you!”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Riku agrees.

“Oh, fine, I’ll read it too,” Kairi smiles. “Have you planned anything interesting for today?”

“Nope,” Sora says.

“Blergh, you boys are no fun.”

“It’s been quiet today,” Riku shrugs. “All we’ve done today is talk.”

“Is that so? Talk about what?”

“About what we want to do in the future,” Riku replies. “Aqua and the others have their plans for the Land of Departure, and the Twilight Town gang are building a life for themselves as well… but we don’t have anything lined up like that.”

“Yeah…” Kari smiles ruefully, looking down at her own lap. “We never did think of what we’d do once we set out, huh?”

“Even if we had, it’s not like we could have predicted this whole mess,” Riku sighs.

Sora bites the inside of his lip in the ensuing silence, wondering if this is the right time to ask Kairi if she’d want to explore with them once Riku is fully healed and they’ve all finished their schooling at Disney Castle. He’s mostly sure that she’ll go with them, but the seed of doubt makes him fidget.

Still, he’ll never know which way things will go unless he _asks_ , so Sora straightens his back and takes a fortifying deep breath.

“I want to explore the worlds that are still out there,” he blurts out earnestly. “I want to help people and make sure that the heartless don’t become a threat again. Riku said he wants that too... “ he trails off for a moment, looking away from her neutral gaze. “Would you... come with us?”

Kairi’s smile is immediate; she scoots closer and grabs both of them in a hug, rubbing Sora’s shoulder comfortingly.

“Of course I would, you dummy,” she says, pinching his cheek the barest bit. “As if I’m gonna let the two of you leave me behind again,” she wags her index in front of his face. “We’re all stuck together.”

Sora’s next exhale takes all the stress he’d been feeling with it, leaving him light as air. Kairi laughs when he beams at her; both her and Riku laugh even harder when Sora begins to list out all the worlds they absolutely _have_ to visit and the things they _must_ see, keeping a fond, indulgent smile directed at him.

They still have quite a ways to go before any of it can become a reality, but Sora can’t even bring himself to care about that -- all that matters is that he’s eventually going to be able to travel the universe with his two best friends, just like they had planned years ago.

The future is gonna be great; Sora’s sure of it.

x

Usually, the first thing Vanitas does upon waking up is to check how much light is coming through his window. Though not a perfectly precise indicator, it allows him to gauge what hour of the day it must be before he gets enough presence of mind to check the clock on his gummi phone.

This body of his -- this replica -- keeps strange hours; he never knows which hour of the morning he’s going to fall asleep at in the next day -- or which hour he’ll _wake up_ at, for the matter -- but Vanitas makes an effort to at least be awake for lunch.

Naminé and Rikuto have given up on seeing him awake for breakfast (unless he hasn’t _slept_ yet) but if he misses lunch, Naminé frowns at him with her big eyes and Rikuto raises his eyebrows in a way that lets Vanitas know just how _unimpressed_ he is, so it’s less painful to just prevent that from happening altogether.

Having friends is a chore, but even Vanitas can’t quite convince himself that he’s better off without them.

Once he’s made sure that there’s still plenty of time before said friends expect to see him downstairs, Vanitas leaves his warm bed with a borderline inhuman noise, heading to the attached bathroom to dunk his own face underwater in an attempt to wake up properly. After that, he opens his window and looks around his bedroom to check if there’s anything that needs doing immediately; anything he neglected to put away, or any task he left unfinished the night before.

Nothing stands out, so he makes his way to the wardrobe to grab a change of clothes, barely glancing at what he’s picking -- no need to worry about matching if everything you own is either black or red, after all. Once he’s as presentable as he cares to make himself, he goes to the door; since he’s up this early, might as well hang out with his friends before lunch.

However, when he turns the knob and pulls, the door doesn’t move at all.

He tries again with a frown, but the result doesn’t change. He then quietly wonders if Ventus’ loser friends have finally had enough of his shit and decided to retaliate. A giddy sort of joy fills him at the thought; yet another shiny new feeling that he has no idea how to deal with, so he ignores it like he does all the others, despite the smirk that creeps up on the corner of his lips.

Vanitas steps back and summons Void Gear with a flick of his wrist. It’s unlikely that whoever locked him in did so with a keyblade, but it’d be remiss of him to discard the possibility before putting it to the test. Thus, he points his keyblade at the door and wills it to unlock, not at all surprised when nothing happens.

The next step is to investigate the door itself. It’s a heavy, wooden thing, covered by pretty -- if simple -- carvings; the hinges look fine and the knob turns without any resistance, so there has been no interference on those fronts.

An even closer inspection allows him to notice the distinct scent of _glue_ , of all things, and not the flimsy kind either; if his senses aren’t leading him astray, then it’s the super-strong glue that Vanitas himself has employed in some of his little traps around the castle. He takes a thin pencil Naminé had given him and swipes it in the small space under the door, gathering definite proof that it _is_ that same glue.

Someone came to his room while he was asleep and literally glued his door shut. It’s safe to assume that the glue must have been spread all over the doorway, given that it’s not a particularly tall door -- even Ventus could have reached the top, provided he had a small stool or something of the sort with him.

The fact that it was done from the outside means that it would be pretty much impossible to dissolve it the glue from the _inside_ ; he was unlikely to get all of it out even if he tried, not to mention the fact that it would take _hours_.

Breaking the door to pieces would not go well with his friends or Ventus’ friends, either. For one, Rikuto would laugh at him until he was blue in the face and Naminé would chide him for resorting to violence instead of thinking of better alternatives, while the other three would probably refuse to get him a new door to replace the destroyed one, rendering his bedroom unusable.

After thinking about it a little more, Vanitas is forced to admit that the process of destroying the door would likely not leave his room unscathed, for that matter, seeing as he’d probably have to use some pretty powerful spells to achieve such a goal.

Vanitas moves closer to his window, giving the walls of the castle a considering look and gauging the distance from said window to the courtyard below. He wouldn’t _die_ from the drop or anything -- wouldn’t even get a scrape, honestly, with the abilities he has at his disposal -- but there’s something decidedly undignified about being forced to exit your own bedroom through the _window_.

The ingeniousness of this trap forces him to eliminate Ventus and Terra from the list of suspects. Not only would it take a particularly devious mind to come up with such a thing, it’d also take a considerable amount of time to put it in practice; he just can’t see those two idiots going through all that trouble, really.

Which leaves Aqua as the sole suspect.

Vanitas can’t help the wide, dangerous grin that spreads across his face upon reaching that conclusion. He’s been having a lot of fun setting up all those traps, sure, and it wasn’t like the possibility of any of them deciding to retaliate hadn’t crossed his mind -- but the fact that _Aqua_ , the appointed mature adult of their entire little circle of dumbass friends, had been the one to finally snap leaves Vanitas positively _giddy_.

In five seconds flat, his mind was already abuzz with ideas for new pranks. It wouldn’t do to leave such a clear declaration of war ignored, after all; he _had_ to strike back. He’s so delighted over this whole situation that he can’t even find it in himself to care about how ridiculous he must look, swinging his legs out of the window to drop onto the grass below.

_Oh, this is going to be **fun**._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :^)  
> The higher being that laughs (cackles, really) at Sora's pain and calls all of their friends to come look? That's me right there. 100%.  
> Also while writing the whole "this is a crush, right?" part I felt like someone in disguise trying to pass as someone else like "[awkward laugh] yeah, crushes, I totally know how they're like!! Absolutely!! I've had so many!!! [trembling smile]" which is kinda funny. I hope it sounds real lmao  
> Said this in a previous chapter, but it's worth repeating right now — I'm a shameless hoe and I do what I want >;3c  
> That little analysis about Sora — I had that convo with a friend hours before I wrote that part, hah. To me, it really fits; Sora doesn't appear to have any strong sense of purpose while on the Destiny Islands. Some of it can be rightly attributed to the fact that he's 14, sure, but even so, he's not someone with a list of demands so that he can be happy. So long as he's got his friends with him, I really think he could be happy pretty much anywhere. He also has a pretty strong set of morals/sense of obligation, which we can see every single time he leaves everything behind to make sure the worlds/his friends are safe and sound. I don't see any them (the Destiny Trio) just settling down like that once the worlds are really, truly safe, but that's me.  
> I never expected to care as much about trash boy Vanitas as I do, or about the Lost trio in general tbh, but by god,, I do. I do care about them. They have such Potential™️. Also, while on Vanitas' pov I can finally curse again.... My bff doesn't really let me curse with the others cause it's not really the feel they have, but with Vanitas I can be as potty mouthed as I want and I LOVE IT.  
> The prank wars begin.... :^)


	14. Chapter 13

Sora, Riku and Kairi make their way to the Land of Departure early on Thursday morning. The healing session of the previous day had gone as smoothly as the two before it, which soothed some of Kairi’s fears in regards to Sora and Riku’s plans to forgo Aqua’s supervision once they completed a month without any unpleasant surprises.

The Forecourt is empty when Sora lands _Highwind_ next to the gummi ship that had been given to Aqua. Ventus had previously texted Riku to say that they were working on a section of the library today, followed by an offer to meet them outside to serve as their guide, but both Riku and Kairi had assured him that they knew the way -- reminding him of the many, many hours the two of them had spent scouring whichever books that were still in readable condition during the time Sora had been missing, in search for clues.

Sora lags behind his two best friends to properly take in the surroundings, looking all around like an impressionable child. He hadn’t had the time to do so the last -- and only -- time he’d been here, during the hurried time to prepare everything for the final battle against Xehanort. Back then, he’d only caught small glimpses, which did _not_ do justice to the world’s beauty.

The grass underneath their feet is of a vibrant green, swaying gently with the breeze; the golden chains connecting the castle to some of the nearby stone spirals gleam in the morning sun, much like the gold accents on the castle itself.

Kairi only notices that Sora and Riku have lagged behind when she reaches the tall white doors that lead to the foyer. She calls them with a hand on her hip and a smile on her face, telling Sora that they can explore the outer areas _after_ they’ve checked in with the castle’s inhabitants.

“Sorry,” Sora says once he and Riku have caught up with her, feeling a little sheepish.

Kairi shrugs his apology off. “It’s okay.”

Despite their considerable bulk, the doors open without much resistance, revealing the large room beyond with barely a noise. Sora spins on his heel once they’ve stepped inside fully, letting out a noise of amazement at the light coming in through the multicolored windows.

“It really is incredible, huh?” Riku says in a low voice, approaching one of the windows to let the incoming sunlight shine onto his hand.

“Yeah,” Sora smiles.

“It is, but we really do have to meet up with the others or else they’ll think we got lost,” Kairi points out amusingly.

“Yeah, yeah,” Sora waves a hand, grinning at her snort.

Kairi continues to lead them after that, sometimes pausing to frown at a fork in the way before Riku quietly tells her the correct way. The two of them describe the rooms that Sora absolutely _has_ to see with wide grins, hyping it all up until Sora’s bouncing on the balls of his feet in expectation.

Kairi’s in the middle of describing the Mountain Path to Sora in great detail when it all goes to hell.

Her seemingly innocuous action of passing through a doorway is accompanied by the inexplicable sound of sloshing liquid and the low groan of metal -- the only warning they get before she becomes _drenched_ in what appears to be water, gasping with hunched shoulders when the cold liquid hits her all at once.

Sora and Riku had jumped back on instinct, too used to weird noises meaning that a heartless was nearby, but Kairi hadn’t had the time to cultivate that same instinct. She stands there with her head tilted down in the charged silence that follows, her new, polka-dot dress now stained with what they dreadfully realize to be _paint_ water.

The two boys exchange a quick, fearful glance when their best friend starts to shake, her hands curling into tight fists. They know from experience that this situation will need to be handled _very_ carefully if they want to come out of it alive.

Sora’s about to try calling her name when Ventus approaches from another corridor, most likely to guarantee they hadn’t gotten lost along the way. His easy smile turns into a wince when he sees Kairi, his shoulders sagging in what looks like sympathy.

“Oh no,” he mutters; Kairi’s head turns in his direction so quickly that he takes a step back, immediately raising his hands in surrender.

“Who did this?” she asks, her voice low and _beyond_ enraged. Ventus shoots Sora and Riku a desperate look, pleading for help, but there’s no stopping the incoming storm -- all the two boys can do is shake their heads.

“...Probably Vanitas,” Ventus grimaces.

“Where. Is. He?” Kairi inquires next, her murderous aura swaying behind her.

“I don’t know; he doesn’t stick around after setting up a trap,” Ventus replies quickly, unwilling to become the target of Kairi’s anger.

All three boys jump back when Kairi summons her keyblade. She stalks off into an empty corridor without a word -- a deadly predator, now on the hunt.

None of them even think of stopping her; they all value their lives too much to do such a thing.

“Oh man,” Ventus sighs, walking closer to Sora and Riku once Kairi is out of sight. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you guys walk around on your own.”

“Vanitas is still going strong with his traps, huh,” Riku muses, staring at the puddle by the doorway.

“You guys don’t know the _half_ of it,” Ventus scratches his head. “Aqua got tired of it and started fighting back a few days ago, so… we kiiinda live in hell now,” he chuckles quietly.

“Yikes,” Sora grimaces.

“Yeah, pretty much. Well, we should probably let the others know, so... let’s go?” Ventus gestures towards the corridor he had come from.

“Sure!”

Terra looks at the three of them with a frown when they enter the library, obviously noticing the missing member of their entourage. Ventus beats him to the punch, announcing that Kairi had gotten hit by one of Vanitas’ pranks -- a statement that is met by sighs and winces alike.

“We should have warned you guys to be careful,” Terra shakes his head regretfully.

“What happened?” Aqua approaches.

“She got a bucket of paint water dropped on her,” Riku explains; Sora overhears Naminé muttering about how that must have been why some of her paints went missing.

“She’s gonna _kill_ him,” Sora declares in a neutral tone.

Rikuto shrugs. “He had it coming.”

“Rikuto!” Naminé frowns.

“What? It’s the truth!”

Terra turns to Sora and Riku. “Should we do anything?”

“It’s… probably better not to, to be honest,” Riku replies.

“I’m pretty sure Tidus still has the scar from that one time,” Sora mutters, staring fixedly at the wall as he remembers the situation that led to said scar. Riku shudders next to him.

Ventus looks at him with wide eyes. “Should I actually fear for his life?”

“I don’t think she’d go _that_ far,” Riku admits. “But it’s definitely gonna hurt.”

“A lot.” Sora nods.

“Well, then. I guess we’re just gonna have to wait and see,” Terra huffs.

“Yeah.”

The next few minutes are filled with a restless expectation that leaves most of them on edge. Some of them try to start a conversation here and there, but it always trails off into silence as they wait for _something_ \-- anything -- to happen.

Then, in the distance, they hear the sound of keyblades clashing. Startled, everyone runs towards the source of the sound, with Aqua leading them as they pass through sunlit corridors and wide halls. They end up in a training arena behind the castle, just in time to see Kairi swing around a lamp post with the help of flowmotion to give her enough momentum to rush Vanitas.

Though Vanitas’ skill level is arguably leagues above Kairi’s, she’s succeeding in keeping him on the defensive, attacking too quickly and too unpredictably to give him any openings. The others expect her to scream or curse, but Sora and Riku know better: her rage has always tended more towards quiet and calculating rather than outright explosive.

Rikuto lets out a low whistle, nodding in admiration when Kairi jumps onto the air to perform an overhead strike that Vanitas barely dodges. Sora reasons that he must be the one who spars with Vanitas the most, which would explain how sharply he watches their fight -- he’s probably looking for moves he can adapt for his own purposes.

Kairi unleashes a magic barrage next: first an Waterga that follows Vanitas when he attempts to dodge, leaving him thoroughly drenched; then a Thundara that dazes Vanitas just long enough for her to finish him off with a Firaga that he blocks sloppily, sending him flying backwards with singed ends.

She doesn’t pursue him any further after that, dismissing her keyblade in a shower of sparks before she brushes her hands over her stained dress. Naminé is quick to intercept her when she starts to walk in their direction, offering to lend her some of Naminé’s own clothes as well as promising to take care of the stains.

“That was impressive,” Rikuto comments before Naminé whisks her away, a hint of respect in his voice.

Kairi studies him for a second. “Thanks,” she says after a beat, turning to Sora and Riku next. “I’ll meet you guys at the library once I’ve changed.”

“Sure,” Sora nods, exchanging glances with the rest of the group once Kairi enters the castle with her Nobody.

Rikuto walks down the stairs to crouch at Vanitas’ side, who has shifted into a sitting position in the meantime.; they’re close enough to hear Rikuto snort at his friend’s sorry state, teasing him for having lost so miserably.

Sora could be wrong, but he thought Vanitas would be way more disgruntled about all this than he appears to be; instead of the scowl he was expecting, he finds a dangerous grin spreading across Vanitas’ sooty face.

Something tells him this won’t be the end of this little altercation between the two of them.

“Well, that was certainly something,” Terra raises his eyebrows.

“I’m kinda surprised it took so long for someone to go after him with a keyblade,” Ventus mutters under his breath.

“Shall we go back?” Aqua smiles brightly. “There’s still a lot to show the three of you.”

“Lead the way,” Riku nods.

This time around, Sora actually _looks_ at the library once they step in, noticing the tables and plush chairs by the wide windows; the tall shelves beyond the reach of the sunlight; the small balcony that gives them access to yet more book on the second floor. Though Sora’s relationship with books has always been shaky, even he can appreciate the amount of knowledge that resides in this room, just waiting to be found.

“A lot of those books are _way_ older than any of us,” Aqua comments, gesturing at the room at large. “We’ve been trying to catalogue them more carefully, but many of them are quite fragile, so it’s going slowly.”

“We could come over and help when we can,” Riku offers.

Sora totally understands why Riku’s doing it, but just the thought of spending _hours_ inside this library organizing piles of old books makes his nose scrunch up, even as he does his best to contain the urge -- he doesn’t want to offend their friends and the work they’ve been doing, after all. Aqua and Terra must still notice it, however, because both of them let out low chuckles.

“There’s no need to bother, really,” Aqua shakes her head, still smiling. “As boring as it can be sometimes, it’s good for us to do it -- we find some interesting stuff from time to time.”

“The books aren’t just about keyblade stuff,” Ventus tells them with a widening grin. “There are some about the history of the Realm of Light, obviously, but there are also books about architecture, gardening, economics -- _all kinds_ of stuff!”

“There are diaries that detail the travels of Keyblade Masters of the past,” Aqua adds. “The worlds they found, the enemies they fought and so much more.”

Sora looks up at Riku then, grinning when their eyes meet -- a sign that they probably had the same thought. When he thinks about it, he has to admit that Kairi would probably insist on being the one to write up their travels; she wouldn’t trust them to be as descriptive or accurate enough, of that Sora was certain.

As if summoned by his thoughts, Kairi walks into the library in that exact moment with Naminé in tow, having traded her dress for airy pants and a comfortable-looking blouse, as well as light blue flats.

“What did I miss?” she asks with an easy smile, clearly resolved to leave the entire incident from earlier behind her.

“We were just detailing some of the things we’ve found,” Aqua replies, nodding at Naminé as the girl heads back to the table she’d been sitting at before this entire mess.

“Anything interesting?”

“Travel journals from past Masters,” Sora pipes in excitedly. Kairi immediately gets the message.

“Let me just tell you right outta the bat that _you_ aren’t gonna be the one writing them,” she wags her index in Sora’s direction.

“Wasn’t planning to!” Sora folds his hands behind his head.

Kairi turns to Riku next, giving him a long onceover with narrowed eyes. Riku shifts uncomfortably, eventually raising his hands in surrender once he’s had enough of her scrutiny.

“You could, but you won’t,” she says, crossing her arms loosely.

“Yes ma’am,” Riku salutes her, which makes her serious façade break into a conspiratory grin.

“Good,” she nods, walking forward to wrap an arm around both their waists. “That kind of thing is _my_ responsibility and I won’t let any of you steal it from me,” she tells them determinedly, digging her hands on their sides as a warning, making them squirm a bit.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Riku huffs in amusement.

Aqua muffles her laugh at their display with a hand, but Terra and Ventus leave their grins on full display, chuckling when Sora, Riku and Kairi direct their gazes at them.

“So, figured out something to do in the future, huh?” Ventus smiles encouragingly.

Sora exhales slowly, putting an arm around Kairi’s shoulders and letting the tips of his fingers brush against Riku’s arm. He talks regularly with pretty much everyone with the help of his gummi phone, but Ventus and Roxas will always have a special place in his heart -- pun mostly intended.

“Yeah,” Sora says, completely at ease. “Easiest choice ever.”

Ventus, Kairi and Aqua chuckle a little while Riku and Terra grin fondly. When Sora looks at Naminé, further away but still in hearing range, she graces him with a nod and a smile.

“There are still a few areas to look at, if you want,” Aqua claps her hands. “Or would you’d rather check out some of the books we have?”

“We can come back later,” Riku replies.

“We came here for the graaaand tour!” Sora reminds them teasingly.

“Is Naminé coming with us?” Kairi asks, shooting a glance at her Nobody.

Said girl looks up from the tome she’d been perusing upon hearing her name be called, shaking her head once she processes Kairi’s question.

“No, I still have a lot of work I want to finish,” Naminé says, pointing at the paper fortress she’s built on the table. “But I hope you have fun!”

Sora, Riku and Kairi break off their little chain as they head out of the library; Ventus immediately takes the spot next to Sora, throwing an arm around Sora’s shoulders as he talks about some of the cool things he’s found beyond the walls of the castle.

The Land of Departure looks deceivingly small to any newcomers -- the castle stands tall amidst the spires, enough that the ground below looks like a green blur when they look down. Said castle is much bigger on the inside than its exterior appearance would lead you to assume, however, which reminds Sora of Riku’s descriptions of Castle Oblivion; closer inspection also allows them to realize that far-away ground continues on for _miles_ , with absolutely no end in sight in any direction.

“Don’t you ever get scared of missing a step, or something like that, and falling all the way down?” Sora asks Ventus once they’ve reached the Forecourt, peering beyond the too-low ledge. The sheer drop has his stomach in knots, even though he knows he’s more than capable of turning his fall into a dive in order to land safely.

“Only like, twice a day,” Ventus snorts.

“Not to mention that little voice in the back of your head that keeps wondering what would happen if you just... jumped,” Terra pipes in, joining them at the edge.

“I hate that voice,” Kairi curls her lip, still a safe distance away.

“Can never make it shut up, though,” Riku says, peering down as well.

“Alright, this is all making me nervous, so please take some steps back before I drag you all myself,” Aqua orders, her tapping foot all but broadcasting her anxiety.

“Yes ma’am,” Ventus laughs, leading them away from the edge.

“Where to next?” Kairi asks.

“We have a few training areas on the ground,” Terra explains. “The ‘official’ arena -- so to speak -- is up here, but we’re rarely lucky enough to fight in a wide, open space out there, so we’ve figured out ways to simulate different terrains.”

“And there are some obstacle courses too, to help us hone our battle instincts and remember to use everything at our disposal,” Aqua points out.

Sora perks up at the mention of an obstacle course, remembering the hours spent racing Riku on the Play Island -- jumping over old planks that never held your weight, elbowing each other when they were close enough to do so, lying on a heap at the finish line after one too many races, overheated and out of breath.

He sends Riku a teasing grin, more for old time’s sake than any desire to actually race against Riku anytime soon. Even if they _did_ race, it wouldn’t be fair, anyway, with Riku still tiring as quickly as he is; instead, Sora would rather win fair and square.

Riku nudges the top of Sora’s head when he catches sight of his grin, laughing quietly as he does it. His hand slides down to Sora’s shoulder in the seconds that follow, which makes a warm feeling bloom in Sora’s chest.

Ventus turns to Sora with an easy grin. “Do you think you’d be up to trying one out?”

Sora feels Riku’s hold on his shoulder tighten for only a fraction of a second, belying thoughts that he knows Riku would rather keep under wraps. Sora reaches out to grab the hem of Riku’s shirt all the same, hoping that it will serve as enough reassurance.

“Nah, not really,” Sora shrugs, leaning closer to Riku. “Some other time, maybe.”

“Why not put Kairi through it?” Riku suggests in a playful tone. Kairi elbows his side for his daring, but all he does in response to that is laugh.

“Yeah, have Kairi run them!”

Kairi puffs out her cheeks in annoyance. “You guys just want to get more blackmail material out of me!”

Sora gasps as if offended, placing a hand over his heart to complete the picture. “Kairi, we’d _never_!”

“Yeah, _right_ ,” she says, crossing her arms and tapping her foot in obvious disbelief.

“You’d start on the easy ones, of course,” Aqua interjects. “To get a feel of how they work or what sort of skills they require.”

“Don’t worry about those two,” Ventus smirks, gesturing at Sora and Riku. “I’ll make sure they don’t bring out their gummi phones.”

“You’re no fun,” Sora protests, pouting just for show. Kairi sticks her tongue out at him, having Sora respond in kind.

“Children,” Riku shakes his head.

“I’m sorry, O Great Keyblade Master, for subjecting your elderness to our lowly childish displays,” Kairi grins, absolutely unrepentant.

She tries to run when she sees him move towards her, but Riku is too quick on his feet for her to succeed; he grabs her by the middle and digs his fingers into whichever patch of soft skin he can find, setting her back on her feet before she gets overwhelmed enough to fight back for real.

Riku narrows his eyes at Sora next, promising swift retribution if Sora dares to utter a similar statement. Sora mimics zipping out his mouth and throwing away the key, lifting his hands in surrender once he’s done -- he’s still sufficiently chastised from a few days ago, thank you very much.

Ventus waits until Kairi has caught her breath to bring them back to the topic at hand. “If you’d rather try it some other time, I can run them instead to show you how it works,” he says, mimicking a few keyblade swings.

Kairi quietly considers his offer for a second, glancing at the spires around them. “Maybe you could do one, and then I could try another?”

“Sounds good to me!” Ventus nods.

With that decided, Terra led them to a corner of the Forecourt, pointing out a _long_ set of stairs that would lead them all the way down. Sora, Riku and Kairi all stop a few paces away, remembering just how high up they are and grimacing as they imagine how much time it’ll take them to reach the bottom.

“This is the _only_ way down? No elevators?” Sora asks, his tone slightly petulant despite his best attempts to sound neutral. Aqua and Terra hide their snorts as Ventus’ shoulders sag.

“It _is_ ,” the boy says, with all the petulance that Sora managed to hide away. “I didn’t believe it either, at first, but it truly is the only way unless we wanna go _splat_ on the ground.”

“Oh, man…” Sora sighs.

“We’ll be at the bottom before you know it,” Aqua says with a twinkle on her eyes.

“Don’t believe her and Terra, they’ve been doing this since they were kids,” Ventus interjects immediately.

“Hey!” Terra protests, drawing Ventus into a loose headlock and rubbing his knuckles on the boy’s scalp.

“Well, then,” Kairi huffs. “The sooner we start, the sooner it’ll end, right? Let’s do this.”

Sora holds Riku back as the rest of their friends begin their descent, giving the stairs’ guard rail a considering stare.

“Hey, Riku. Think you feel good enough to use a bit of flowmotion?”

Riku follows his line of sight with a frown, then snorts when he gets exactly what Sora is proposing. “All the way down?”

“Or at least until the rail ends,” Sora grins.

He watches as Riku shifts in place for a moment, quietly taking stock of himself. After a few seconds, his best friend nods with a determined expression.

“I think I can do it.”

“If you start feeling weird, let me know _immediately_ , okay?” Sora insists. “Just yell out my name or something and we’ll stop.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Sora’s serious expression is replaced by a playful grin. “Right, then. Shall we?”

“You go first,” Riku says, bowing at the waist with a teasing smirk.

Sora jumps onto the rail with a flourish, straining his hearing to make sure that Riku does the same behind him. He grins as they start to pick up speed, feeling the wind whip his hair and clothes around; using flowmotion like this always makes him feel as light as air.

Kairi lets out an indignant yell when they zoom past her and the others, accusing them of being dirty cheaters. Sora’s only reaction is to laugh at her plight, but Riku actually takes the time to respond.

“Use flowmotion!!” he shouts back.

They won’t know if she’s decided to take Riku’s advice -- or if she’d even _heard_ it in the first place -- until they reach the bottom, but if Sora still knows Kairi as well as he thinks he does, she’ll probably do it once she gets past the slight fear of her magic failing to make her stick to the rail.

He and Riku will just have to wait a bit and see.

Even with the help of flowmotion, it still takes a considerable amount of time for them to reach the bottom -- something that only makes Sora even more grateful that he decided to use it in the first place. He keeps a close eye on the ground as they go so he can prepare for the jump off; he’d rather not be flung off like a missile by his wayward magic, thanks.

He sticks a perfect landing as a reward for his efforts, taking a second to make sure the magic has dissipated before turning to watch Riku land as well.

His best friend stumbles a bit upon making contact with the soft grass, having to take a few unsteady steps forward to use up the momentum of the jump. Sora is quick to move closer, lacing his arms around Riku’s torso to stop him from doing something absolutely undignified such as falling on his face, even though Sora is the only one around to see it.

“Woah there, you okay?” he asks with a slight frown, studying the way Riku massages his own chest with a wince.

Riku takes a deep breath, shifting slowly until he’s standing tall again. Sora lets go of him equally as slowly, taking a step back when Riku nods at him.

“My heart just complained about the sudden use of magic, I think,” he says with a far-away look in his eyes. “It stung a little, especially when we landed, but it’s better now.”

“Alright,” Sora nods.

A part of him wants to ask if Riku’s really sure, wants to make a bigger fuss, but Sora kicks it away; after all the talks they’ve had on the topic of Riku communicating properly with him, Sora’s got to do his part and trust that Riku’s saying the truth when he says he’s doing okay.

Their quiet little moment is broken by the arrival of Kairi, who fails to control her speed, overshooting them by a long shot. She lands a dozen or so meters away from them and promptly overbalances, falling on her butt with an annoyed noise.

Sora bites the insides of his cheeks to keep from laughing at the sight, entirely aware of the hell he’ll have to face if he does laugh. Riku covers his grin with a hand, turning his back to her to make sure she doesn’t catch sight of it.

“You doing okay?” Sora asks once he’s managed to dispel his own grin.

“I’m fine,” Kairi grumbles, oozing disgruntlement. “The only thing bruised is my ego.”

“Aww,” Sora coos, raising his hands in surrender when she glares at him. “You’ll get better with practice!”

“If this doofus can do it, so can you,” Riku snarks, ruffling Sora’s hair.

“Hey!” Sora protests, ducking out of his reach.

“Oh, believe me, I’ll do it,” Kairi promises. “But probably out of sight from the two of you; you guys have more than enough blackmail material on me already,” she shakes her head in disgust.

“Comes with the best friend package!” Sora grins, feeling quite pleased with himself.

“Need I remind you how many embarrassing stories we have of _this_ dork?” Riku asks Kairi, gesturing with his thumb at Sora in a teasing tone.

“ _So_ many,” Kairi laughs.

Sora clicks his tongue. “As if you’re any different from us, Ri-ku!”

The three of them continue to banter in such a manner as they wait for Aqua, Terra and Ventus to catch up, staying close to the castle’s pillar just for safety. Sora’s pretty sure that it wouldn’t be super difficult to find their way back even if they wandered off, but it’s better to play it safe -- you can’t always trust your senses in a foreign world, which is a lesson he likes to think he’s learned well.

It takes a good few minutes for their three friends to appear. Ventus breaks into a run when he sees them despite Aqua’s request for him to slow down, crossing his arms playfully when he comes to a stop next to them.

“I agree with what Kairi said -- it’s unfair that you guys keep those sweet skills all for yourselves! What about the rest of us?” 

“I think I would’ve killed someone if it meant I got to have that particular ability a decade or so ago,” Terra shakes his head with a grin. “If would have saved me _so_ much trouble.”

“It would also have been harder for you to get all those muscles of yours if you could just take the easy way out like that,” Aqua argues with a raised eyebrow.

“Hey, I disagree! We have Riku right here!” Sora frowns, presenting Riku with both hands; his best friend is pretty muscled, thank you very much. Sora might as well be an expert on said muscles, with all the staring he’s done.

“Sora!” Riku protests, his cheeks turning a dusty pink.

Sora grins unapologetically, filing Riku’s current expression away in his mind for later perusal and forcing himself out of his little daze at the sound of Kairi’s entirely too-knowing snort.

“So, are we gonna head to the obstacle courses or not?” Ventus raises his eyebrows, clearly amused at how distracted everyone has gotten.

Sora folds his hands behind his head. “Lead the way!”

The three islanders listen attentively as Aqua, Terra and Ventus talk about what their apprenticeship under Master Eraqus was like. Aqua laughs as she tells them about how weirded out she had been upon first arriving in the Land of Departure -- a world that was entirely uninhabited save for her Master, her fellow apprentice and herself.

There were no villages, no children running around as they played, no lively markets where they could spend hours wandering through, enamored by every little trinket they found -- just the three of them in a high-up castle, surrounded by stone spires and the occasional chirp of a passing bird.

Something about Aqua’s story makes Kairi stop short, however, frowning in utter confusion. “Wait,” she says, glancing at all three of Eraqus’ apprentices. “Where do you guys get _food_?!”

Aqua and Terra both laugh; Terra, in particular, looks like he’d been just _waiting_ for someone to ask about this particular subject.

“A spell similar to the one in the Mysterious Tower, most likely,” Aqua explains, still chuckling a bit. “The pantries were always full, and whenever we found ourselves craving something we didn’t have at hand, it usually appeared in one of the cabinets until the end of the day.”

“Oh, right,” Kairi scratches her cheek in slight embarrassment. “I forgot about that for a moment.”

“But the thing is,” Ventus cuts in. “The spell was maintained by Master Eraqus, just like one that kept the castle clean.”

Riku frowns, quietly connecting the dots. “So it’s not working anymore?”

“Nope,” Ventus sighs.

“So how _do_ you guys get food, then?” Sora cocks his head.

“The Mysterious Tower,” Aqua replies.

“How does that work?” Kairi scrunches her nose.

Terra shrugs with a wide grin. “We grab the gummi ship, head over there and fill it up with food.”

Sora, Riku and Kairi all laugh at the mental image that gives them; Sora imagines Ventus opening the fridge to take half of its contents to the gummi ship and laughs harder.

“Oh man, imagine if Axel saw you guys do that!” Kairi snorts mid-laugh.

“He’d empty the kitchens for sure,” Riku shakes his head with a chuckle.

“ _After_ he had the Tower give him like _five-hundred_ boxes of sea salt ice cream!” Sora pipes in, making Kairi laugh even harder.

“He’d just fill up their new house with ice cream!” she exclaims, half snorting.

“Roxas would kill him,” Sora grins.

“I think Isa would get him first,” Ventus snorts.

“Yeah,” Terra pipes in.

“You’re right, Isa would make mince meat of him,” Riku huffs in amusement.

Kairi wipes away a few tears. “I don’t know whether I want to tell him about this or not,” she says, still letting out the occasional chuckle.

“No, let him figure that out by himself; it’ll be _much_ funnier,” Ventus grins.

“You’re totally right,” Kairi nods.

They reach the first obstacle course not too long after that, much to Ventus’ enthusiasm. Terra explains that it’s the biggest one they have, intended for more experienced wielders -- though it’s not the _hardest_ one, he assures them; he and Aqua both shudder at the mention of it, quickly changing the subject to something less traumatizing.

Sora nudges Ventus. “Do you know which one they were talking about?” he whispers.

“Kind of? I’ve heard about it, but never actually seen it. I only got to do this one--” he gestures to the nearest course-- “like, last week.”

Sora hums, his curiosity successfully piqued. Riku catches his gaze and narrows his eyes, wordlessly telling Sora that he won’t allow him to do anything stupid such as trying to find the course on his -- and, consequentualy, their -- own. Sora responds with an innocent grin, absolutely unaffected by Riku’s glare.

It’d be no fun to find it and not be able to test it, anyway; Sora was going to play the long game on this one.

They move into another area to find the obstacle course Ventus wants to do his demonstration on. Sora and Kairi cheer him on with wide smiles as he gets ready, making Aqua and Terra both chuckle under their breaths. Aqua starts the timer in her gummi phone once Ventus gives her the signal -- then, he’s running.

Terra explains that this particular course is designed to test a wielder’s agility and timing, which makes it especially well-suited for Ventus. He jumps, rolls and dodges seemingly effortlessly, only ever slowing down to get the timing of a certain feature right.

Aqua adds that there are also courses made to test someone’s magic ability, endurance or quick thinking, as well as a fair amount of multipurpose ones scattered across the area surrounding the castle. She also points to a little board near the finish line where they tally up the scores for each run, adding an element of competition to the courses that only allow one wielder at a time.

“Wait, so there are others that can have two people in it at the same time?” Sora’s grin widens, nudging Riku’s arm with his elbow.

“Or even more than two,” Terra smiles.

“Oh, that’s so cool! Riku, just you wait, I’m gonna leave you in the _dust!_ ”

“Keep dreaming, porcupine,” Riku smirks.

Ventus finishes the course with a pleased grin, accepting praise from Sora and Kairi with a slightly bashful laugh. Aqua tallies up his points -- which are based not only on how quickly one completes the course, but also how well the participant handles the challenges in it, with extra points for creativity -- and adds his latest score to his personal ranking.

“We’ll probably have to get bigger scoreboards once more people start doing these, but for now they still work just fine,” Aqua hums, turning to them with a smile. “Kairi, ready for yours?”

“Sure! Do I get to choose?”

“I thought it’d be nice for you to run a general one first, to get an idea of your skill level and how comfortable you are with your keyblade,” Aqua explains.

Kairi nods. “Sounds good!”

They all accompany her to the entrance of the chosen course, piling her up with advice and encouragement while she warms up, giving the circuit a calculating look.

“You better kick butt in there, or we’re disowning you,” Sora smirks, cackling loudly when she gasps in mock outrage.

“Don’t listen to this sandhead; we’ll keep you no matter how well you perform,” Riku snorts, drawing Sora into a playful headlock to keep him from arguing.

“As if you guys could _ever_ get rid of me!” Kairi scoffs with her nose high up in the air in feigned disdain, jumping onto the course’s platform before blowing a raspberry in Sora’s direction.

Ventus leads them to a small hill nearby before Kairi gives Aqua the signal to start the timer, allowing them full view of the sprawling structure just a few meters ahead. Sora would be on the edge of his seat if it weren’t for the fact that they’re all standing, letting out loud cheers and shouting plenty of encouraging words at his best friend as she shows off the skills she’s acquired so far. Riku isn’t _nearly_ as loud, but he cheers too, smiling whenever Kairi succeeds in passing through an obstacle.

She’s panting by the time she gets to the finish line, her red hair starting to stick to the sides of her face. Sora passes her a water bottle from one of his bottomless pockets, shamelessly singing her praises until she pushes him away with a blush high on her cheeks, though it isn’t long until her embarrassment is replaced by well-earned pride.

“That was very good for your first run,” Aqua says with an approving smile, adding Kairi’s score to the nearby board. Sora and Riku share amused grins as Kairi all but _glows_ upon receiving _Aqua’s_ praise.

“Yeah, no one would guess that you had absolutely no training not even five months ago,” Riku pipes in.

“Aww, thanks, Riku,” Kairi coos, giving him a brief hug.

“So, have you had enough or do you want to do a few more?” Terra asks her, settling a hand on his hip. “We can direct you to some magic-based ones, since I know that’s what you’ve been focusing a lot of your learning on.”

“I’m definitely interested, though I might need a few Ethers if I’m gonna do more than one,” she laughs; Sora reaches into one of his pockets, riffling around it for a second before he hands her five Ethers and two Hi-Ether for good measure, grinning at how she rolls her eyes.

“I swear you have your entire house in there,” she shakes her head, ultimately taking the items.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if that were the case,” Riku half-smirks.

“You guys are just jealous of my amazing inventory,” Sora shrugs.

Sora diligently watches and cheers as she does a few different courses, like the good best friend he is, but once she starts to repeat some of them to work on her fine control and reaction times, he can’t help but get a little bored -- especially since he’s been just quietly standing around for over an hour, now.

He drags Riku and Ventus to the base of a spire, plops down next to it and promptly starts to pull out blades of grass in front of him, just to give his hands something to do. When Riku sits down as well, Sora shifts closer until their arms are pressed together without thinking, striking up a conversation with Ventus about whatever comes to his mind.

“Oh, I haven’t asked you yet!” Sora exclaims a few minutes later, apropos of nothing, making both of his friends startle. “Ven, are you gonna study at Disney Castle too?!” he asks excitedly, “I mean, I guess you must’ve learned ‘normal’ stuff in your time under Master Eraqus, so I don’t know if you’d even need it,” he trails off with a frown.

Ventus chuckles once Sora finishes his piece, having gotten fairly used to Sora’s sudden little outbursts whenever he manages to remember something he had been wanting to say. Riku, who’s had a lifetime to get used to it already, has gone back to his light doze against the sun-warmed rock.

“We did have classes on stuff like math and science in here, yeah, but I don’t remember _anything_ from before my time as Master Xehanort’s apprentice, so my education is still full of holes,” he laughs. “I’ve been seriously considering it, to be honest. Plus, even Aqua and Terra said they’re interested in some of the classes the Queen is offering!”

“It _is_ interesting stuff, though,” Riku mumbles, apparently more awake than Sora had thought. “The fact that they’re willing to provide us with classes on stuff like diplomacy, etiquette and the like could _really_ come in handy in the future, and in a much more concrete way than all the normal school stuff.”

“Even if they’re probably gonna be at _least_ a little boring,” Sora sighs, letting his head drop onto Riku’s shoulder. “I mean, _etiquette_ , _reaaally_? That’s gonna be toooooorture.”

“Better than making a fool of yourself when one of your _many_ royal friends invites you to a ball or something,” Riku snorts.

“That’s still debatable,” Sora pouts.

“We _do_ know a lot of royals, huh?” Ventus muses with a raised eyebrow.

Sora grins. “A ton of them, yeah.”

“So if you’re not looking forward to diplomacy and etiquette lessons, is there anything else you’re interested in?” Ventus cocks his head.

“Yeah, actually! I really wanna see how the ballroom dancing classes are gonna be like,” he says, mirroring Ventus’ position -- legs crossed in front of him with his hands around his ankles.

Ventus smiles. “You like dancing?”

“I guess? It can be really fun! I like to move around and do stuff,” he bobs his head.

“You know that ballroom dancing is more about grace and control than just moving around randomly, right?” Riku remarks, dry as dirt.

“Of course I know that!” Sora huffs in annoyance, jumping to his feet to loom over Riku with crossed arms. “What, you don’t think I can do it?”

“I think you can do a lot of things so long as you actually put your mind to it,” Riku shrugs, though if his blush is anything to go by, he ended up sounding more earnest than he’d originally intended.

The words make something warm and fuzzy bounce around inside Sora’s ribcage, but he’s not about to let his stupid little crush distract him from the point he wants to make.

“That’s really sweet, but I’m still making you dance with me,” he says, grabbing both of Riku’s hands in an attempt to heave him to his feet.

“ _What!?_ Sora, wait!”

“Nope! You insulted my skills, so now you gotta dance with me, it’s the rules.”

“I _complimented_ you!”

“You did it too late,” Sora retorts, absolutely unmoved -- just like Riku, damn him. “Come ooooon, Riku!”

His best friend continues to be a dead weight for a few more seconds before sighing, admitting defeat and allowing Sora to pull him to his feet. Sora cheers, beaming at his reluctant best friend.

“Do you even know the steps to any of the dances?” Riku asks dubiously; in any other situation, Sora would pout at the skepticism in his tone, but right now he’s too ecstatic about having managed to convince Riku to dance with him to care.

“Nope! Do you?”

“Not really.”

“This is just for fun, anyway! The proper steps and stuff can come later.”

“Right,” Riku mutters, tilting his slightly blushing face away from Sora’s steady, happy gaze.

Still, even if they don’t know the movements of any waltz -- or of any fancy dance, really -- that doesn’t mean that Sora doesn’t know the correct stance; he’s seen it in plenty of movies, especially the romantic ones that Selphie always insisted on watching whenever they all got together.

Riku jumps when Sora clasps their hands into a proper hold, staring wide-eyed at Sora when he lays a hand on Riku’s shoulder. Sora raises his eyebrows in clear expectation when Riku fails to follow suit, prompting his best friend to begrudgingly settle a hand on his waist.

Even though Riku’s the one in the leading position, Sora is the one to get them moving; he starts spinning them around, doing his very best not to step on Riku’s feet or something of the sort. After a few clumsy, borderline stiff spins, Riku finally relaxes into it, grasping Sora’s hand more firmly and using the hand on his waist to nudge Sora wherever he wants to.

They get so caught up in it that Sora nearly falls on his butt when he accidentally missteps on a sudden drop of the ground, making him stumble a few steps while still holding onto Riku for dear life.

After that, the spell is broken; Sora lets his hand slide off Riku’s shoulder with a chuckle and tries to ignore how weird his waist feels without Riku’s warm hand on it.

It takes them perhaps a little longer than normal to stop holding hands, but Sora does his best to ignore that too.

Riku goes back to his previous spot after giving Sora a small smile. Sora kind of feels like his world has tilted on its axis and that warm, fuzzy thing from earlier is going absolutely _crazy_ inside his ribcage, but he can’t bring himself to regret a single second of it.

Ventus grins at him when he walks back as well. Sora’s indescribably grateful that Kairi wasn’t around to watch that little stunt -- he’d _never_ hear the end of it otherwise.

“That looked like fun!” Ventus exclaims, swaying from side to side absentmindedly.

“It really was,” Sora agrees. It also gave him a lot of unnamed, tangled-up feelings that he’ll eventually have to take a look at, but for now he sets them aside the best he can. “D’you wanna dance too?” Sora suggests, waggling his eyebrows with a wide grin.

“Sure, why not?” Ventus laughs, standing up in a single fluid motion.

Sora leads him into a dance more like the one he saw in the Kingdom of Corona, with lots of hopping around and plenty of laughter -- all the while Sora inwardly revels in how Riku fondly smiles at them.

This is how Kairi, Aqua and Terra find them once they get tired of running courses over and over again. Sora would invite them to join, but his stomach has started to rumble, so he takes their suggestion to head up for lunch instead.

Sora, Riku and Kairi make their way up to the castle in the same way they’d made their way down, letting out loud whoops as the strong wind cools them down. Riku takes a little longer to regain his footing this time around, but Kairi also lands better, so Sora decides to mark the outcome of their use of flowmotion as neutral.

Rikuto, Naminé and Vanitas are already in the kitchen when the three of them get there, with Rikuto and Naminé minding the stove and Vanitas setting out the plates and cutlery with a scowl. Kairi pretends Vanitas doesn’t exist, and Vanitas staunchly pretends that _neither_ of them exist, which everyone knows is his default state -- unless he’s looking to cause some trouble, that is.

The food is ready by the time Aqua, Terra and Ventus finally arrive, so they waste no time before digging in. Naminé and Rikuto listen to Ventus and Kairi’s retelling of how the morning on the ground went with a fair amount of interest; though Vanitas feigns indifference as always, Sora can see that he’s listening as attentively as his friends are.

Once the table has been cleared and everything has been washed and left to dry, Sora, Riku and Kairi accompany Aqua to the library again, requesting to take a look at some of the travel journals they have in store.

“For research!” Kairi grins with a healthy dose of enthusiasm.

Aqua walks all around the library to collect said journals, commenting on how they _need_ to come up with an actual organizing system for all these books -- preferably sometime soon, she adds. She presents a small pile of leather-bound notebooks to them, smiling at their words of thanks.

“Most of these are more like a small biography than strictly a travel journal,” she tells them, running her fingers over the books’ spines. “If you find anything interesting, anything that sounds like new information that we could possibly use someday, please make a note of it here,” she hands Riku a notepad, then smiles. “Who knows, it could come in handy one day.”

“Roger that!” Kairi nods firmly.

“Aye, aye!” Sora agrees.

“Well, if that’s all, I’ll leave you to it. If you need anything, just send a message to any of us, alright?”

“Sure,” Riku smiles.

After she leaves, the three of them divide the pile amongst themselves and dig in; even _Sora_ is feeling excited at the prospect of spending hours looking through dusty old books, which should be rightly marked down as a miracle. Still, who can blame him for it, when those pages will most likely contain descriptions of worlds they’ve never been to before; worlds that they might rediscover one day?

Sharing a giddy grin with his two best friends in the entire universe, Sora opens the first journal in his pile, prepared to go onto a whole new adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had SO MUCH fun planning that little prank Kairi got hit by. The thing is, the castle doesn't have _just_ path to the library, and Vanitas pranked that one because he's seen Aqua using it before, but it's not the quickest way to it, which is why Ventus appears from another direction. Vanitas is a powerhouse, but Kairi has the power of god and anime on her side during their scruffle, so he gets his ass kicked >:) only Sora really notices it, but if this had been one of those interactive games, there would've been a "this action will have consequences..." on the corner of the screen as Kairi kicked Vanitas' butt to the curb.  
> I like to think of Kairi being in charge of most provisions and actually keeping them alive (food, clothes, medkit for scrapes that aren't bad enough for a Cure), Riku being the navigator because he's the one with the best sense of direction/spatial placement, and Sora being the walking moogle shop with the universe in his pockets (as well as taking care of more survival-oriented stuff with Riku's help). Sora ALWAYS has more potions lying around — Kairi eventually gives up and decides that the fairies put some sort of potion generator in Sora's clothes, cause this is getting ridiculous.  
> Sora is only further cementing the need for an eventual sleeping pile so _everyone_ can get flowmotion skills once and for all, and Riku is already kind of dreading it.  
> The dancing part.... I almost blacked out writing it, I was having so many feelings. Listening to that lil waltz in DDD's Dearly Beloved always gives me ALL the feels, I love it so goddamn much, it always makes me grin like a loon.  
> I forgot to mention whether the Lost trio is going to school as well (they are), but, oh well. I wrote the last 2k of this chapter all today in a hurry to finish the chapter in time for posting cause if I lose my streak I'll die, just like a shark dies if they stop moving, y'know? So that's whatever pfft.  
> Next chapter, we'll have the last healing session and a few lil surprises! :3


	15. Chapter 14

On the following Wednesday, Sora drags Riku to the beach to wait for Aqua’s arrival not even half an hour after they eat lunch, too excited to pay any mind to Riku’s complaints about how they’re going to burn to a crisp in the midday sun. Honestly, Riku doesn’t even know why he still tries; he’s very well aware that when Sora works himself into a state such as this, logic has no effect on him.

Sora leads them towards the main harbor, where most of the bigger ships on the Islands are anchored at -- including Daichi’s -- before taking a left to a much smaller and non-descript dock not too far from it; a path that Riku would be able to take even with his eyes closed.

That small dock had once been used religiously by the many kids that liked to run around in the Play Island, but ever since the smaller island had been declared off-limits by the adults, it has been slowly falling into disrepair. These days it’s basically only Sora, Riku and Kairi that really use it, staunchly ignoring the reproachful glances they get whenever anyone sees them do it.

Though the wood has begun to be overtaken by moss, the structure still holds their weight just fine; it lets out a familiar creak when Sora plops down at the edge, taking his shoes off carelessly to stick his feet into the water. Riku follows suit with an inaudible sigh, letting the cool water lap at his calves as he squints up at the blue sky.

The abandoned boats that remain tied to their little dock bob up and down with the waves. Riku can still put a name to most of them, recognizing Selphie’s and Tidus’ boats with a glance even though the paintings their owners did on them have all but faded away due to the unforgiving sun, sea spray and occasional storms.

“Do you remember the storms that the Islands used to get when we were kids?” Riku asks, pulling a loose splinter out of the wood at his side.

Sora laughs brightly, turning to face Riku with a happy grin. “We’d sneak out to shower in the rain even though it made our moms lecture us for, like, four hours straight.”

Riku snorts -- even just _thinking_ about those lectures already makes his ears start ringing. “I miss those,” he hums. “We haven’t had a storm yet this summer, have we?”

“Nope,” Sora replies, his swinging feet making little splashing noises. “It’s rained, sure, but never for long.”

“High tide storms were the _best_.”

“We’ll just have to wait for the wet season,” Sora says, lying down onto the warm wood with a huff. “Then we can see if Mom and Mama Hoshi will still scold us for going out in the middle of a storm.”

Sora’s absolute certainty that they’ll still be there by the time the rainy season rolls around soothes Riku in a way that is hard to describe. For all the plans they’ve been making and all the hope they’ve cultivated over the past few weeks since Sora has been back, a part of Riku still waits for some other enemy to spring up in Xehanort’s wake and laugh at them for daring to think they could live in peace from now on. It creeps up on him insidiously, lingering around like poison until Sora or Kairi manage to bat it away -- usually without even noticing.

They sit there in comfortable silence as the tide comes in, lulled into a doze by the sounds coming from the nearby harbor. Riku finds it amusing to touch Sora’s arm every now and then to check how warm his skin has gotten; his best friends’s ability to nap right under the sun is something Riku will _never_ understand.

It takes another half hour for their friends to arrive. Sora jumps to his feet when he sees the approaching boats, waving like a madman -- or at least like an overexcited puppy, Riku thinks with a fond sigh.

When Riku and Sora made their way back to the Destiny Islands after the fight against Xemnas, Sora’s dad had provided them all with new boats to replace the half-broken ones that had been left on the Play Island when the world fell to darkness. Riku, in particular, had been in desperate need of one; his legs had become too long for him to be comfortable in their childhood boats, no matter which position he was sitting in.

In the month and a half since their definite return to the Islands, they had arranged for a few more boats to be kept at the Play Island for the use of any visiting friends -- big enough to fit three people, if they didn’t mind squeezing in a little.

Riku is surprised, however, to see two boats instead of one -- though he guesses it makes sense when he considers how many pranks Vanitas could set up while Aqua and Terra were away. Sora helps Terra tie one of the boats to the dock as Rikuto deals with the second one, his hands going through the motions effortlessly.

Sora can barely stand still during the entire way to his house, bouncing and skipping like a rabbit, a huge grin permanently plastered to his face. Riku gets exhausted just by watching him move around, eventually laying both hands on Sora’s shoulders in an attempt to keep him from floating away, or something equally as ridiculous.

“If I didn’t know you can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, I’d wonder how the hell we’re supposed to nap with you like this,” he says in a long-suffering tone. Sora’s only reaction is to turn that blinding grin of his onto Riku, not even bothering to protest the heavy hands on his shoulders.

Aiko takes one look at Rikuto and immediately declares that she absolutely won’t mind if he calls her Mama Aiko as well, which makes the poor boy blush and stammer incoherently for a full minute as Vanitas cackles uncontrollably beside him.

Vanitas’ mirth is cut short, however, by Aiko turning to him and saying that he can do that as well, if he wants, even though he’s a completely different person that only _happens_ to look like her son; Vanitas quickly turns his head away, firmly pretending that such an interaction never happened.

Sora moves his game system to the living room to give Ventus, Vanitas and Rikuto something to do while they wait for the healing session to be finished. Naminé raises her sketchpad with a small smile when asked if there’s anything she needs, telling Sora that she’ll just draw and watch the boys play video games to pass the time.

Kairi arrives just as Sora and Aiko finish setting everything up for their guests, waving at Aiko, Ventus and Naminé before she heads upstairs with the rest of the group for the main event of the day.

Three weeks of practice haven’t made falling asleep while he’s being watched any easier for Riku, but he forces his eyes shut either way, reasoning that so long as everything goes well -- which it _will_ \-- it’ll be the last time they’ll have to do this with an audience, thankfully.

He knows Kairi still has some worries over them going unsupervised so soon and he doesn’t begrudge her for it, but he’d still rather stop wasting a Keyblade Master’s time with something that has given no signs of going badly ever since that first disaster at the Mysterious Tower. He and Sora have been extra careful in those three weeks of regular healing sessions; they’ll be _fine_.

Riku is asleep before even realizing how drowsy he’s become, his thoughts dissipating into the static that precedes a dive, with Sora right there at his side.

x

Kairi likes to be present when Sora and Riku work to heal their hearts more for her own peace of mind than out any ability to help in case anything were to go wrong. She’ll sit on Sora’s bean bag or Riku’s desk chair to watch as their hearts glow inside their chests -- pulsing faintly with each heartbeat -- and pray to every god she knows of to never be forced to watch them flicker out.

Once her boys have been asleep for an hour and a half, Kairi offers to go downstairs to grab refreshments for Aqua and Terra, which they gladly accept. On her way to the kitchen, she passes by Vanitas and Rikuto playing one of Sora’s many fighting games, shaking her head as Vanitas yells out a string of curses that would make some of the Islands’ old sailors proud.

Aiko gives Kairi a half-amused, half-impressed grin when she enters the kitchen, the medical journal in front of her all but ignored as she listens to the commotion in the living room.

“He’s sure got a mouth on him, doesn’t he? Daichi’s friends would be so impressed,” she laughs.

“He’s terrible,” Kairi states in a matter-of-fact tone, taking a tray from an overhead cabinet and placing it on the counter before she opens the fridge.

“Ouch,” Aiko grins, resting her chin on her palm as she raises her eyebrows in amusement. “What were his crimes, your honor?”

“He ruined a brand new dress of mine,” Kairi replies, setting down two cups of water on the tray with a little more force than necessary. Aiko lets out a low whistle.

“Yep, I can see why that would make you mad.”

“I kicked his butt for it,” Kairi sniffles haughtily.

“Atta girl,” Aiko nods with pride in her eyes.

Ventus joins them in the kitchen a few seconds later, laughing as Vanitas screams in rage when Rikuto presumably beats him yet again.

“I’m just waiting for the moment he explodes for real and decides to throw the controller at Rikuto,” Ventus remarks, shaking his head with amusement at the antics of his other half. “Naminé’s drawing him like one of those cartoon monsters with a huge red aura of doom; it’s the funniest thing!”

“I can imagine,” Aiko snorts. She turns to Kairi next, smoothing a hand over an illustration of the circulatory system. “How are our boys up there?”

“They’re doing okay,” Kairi replies, putting in the finishing touches on her tray. “If the previous sessions are anything to go by, they should be awake in about an hour.”

“That’s good,” Aiko hums, smiling down at her book with a touch of motherly worry. Kairi’s heart squeezes unpleasantly inside her chest at the thought of all the things they haven’t told their parents -- and probably never will.

She walks closer and bends down to give Aiko a hug, unwilling to leave Sora’s mom looking so resigned. She presses a kiss to Aiko’s cheek as she draws back, taking Aiko’s hands on her own as she does so.

“They’ll be fine,” Kairi says resolutely, working to convince herself as much as Aiko. “They’ve been through so much already; they’ll get through this as well.”

“Yeah...” Aiko smiles gratefully. “Our boys have always been strong, haven’t they?”

“Sometimes _too_ strong, one could argue,” Kairi half-smirks, glad for the opportunity to lighten the atmosphere.

“Oh, of that I’m certain,” Aiko laughs, cupping Kairi’s jaw for a few seconds. “Now, you should run along -- better not to keep your friends waiting, hmm?”

“Yeah,” Kairi smiles, giving one of Aiko’s hands a squeeze.

She picks up her tray and nods at Ventus on her way out, going back to Sora’s room -- back to her watchpost.

x

When Kairi is making her way home later that night after yet another successful healing session, she finds it downright impossible to keep her mind from running in dizzying, exhausting circles around her.

Aqua had finally agreed to stop supervising Sora and Riku as they healed, on the condition that the two of them visit Ienzo for a second check-up. If they still showed no signs of anything nefarious going on that Aqua and Kairi hadn’t been able to perceive, then there was no real reason to keep Aqua and her superior healing skills nearby anymore.

But even though Kairi sees sense in their arguments, she _worries_. She can still see Sora disappearing right in front of her when she closes her eyes; she can still see Riku collapsing on the grass, skin as pale as his silver hair for no apparent reason; she can _still vividly remember_ the blind panic of finding them both barely breathing after Sora’s first healing attempt.

Once Aqua stops coming by to watch over them, Kairi will become the only person around capable of helping them if anything goes wrong -- a thought that leaves her absolutely _terrified_. If anything wrong _does_ happen and she fails to fix it herself, there’ll be nothing left to do other than _wait_ for help to arrive; considering that their friends all live in _whole different worlds_ far away from their own, there will always be a chance that said help could arrive a little too late to save the lives of her two best friends.

She’s had more nightmares featuring that exact situation than she cares to count.

The thought follows her all the way home, circling overhead as she eats dinner with her parents like a vulture waiting for its next meal to keel over. She brushes off her mom’s concern with a smile she knows to be entirely unconvincing, giving both of her parents hugs for good measure as she assures them she’ll be alright, retiring to her room for the evening shortly thereafter.

Kairi sits at her desk and mopes around for another good fifteen minutes before deciding that enough is _enough_. She _can’t_ let herself focus solely on all the things that could go wrong -- Sora and Riku have _promised_ her that they will be more careful; that they won’t run off on their own anymore, so she _has_ to believe them; she has to push that cloying fear away and remind herself that they have been extra careful so far, precisely because they know what was at stake.

They care about each other’s wellbeing too much to do anything that might put the other at risk -- she knows that without the slightest shadow of doubt.

The three of them will visit Radiant Garden again on the weekend for another check-up, Ienzo will tell them everything is going well and they’ll be able to move into the next phase of their healing process, with Kairi as their ever vigilant protector. They will be _fine_.

She busies herself with making progress on a tome about magical theory that Aqua had recommended to her in their visit to the Land of Departure, getting through a dozen pages before her brain decides to turn to mush, thus rendering the entire book unreadable. Though the language it uses is _leagues_ better than some of the books she had gotten from Merlin and the Mysterious Tower, the subject is still _absurdly_ heavy, making it a chore to go through -- even if Aqua had promised getting a good grasp on it would make her magic noticeably better down the line.

Kairi closes the old tome with all the care that it deserves, gently settling it back inside its protective casing before she lets her head drop onto her desk with a dull thud. She can’t help but find it wholly unfair that she has to spend hours upon hours studying to get better at using her keyblade when her two best friends amassed their considerable knowledge seemingly by _osmosis_ \-- which is how it feels like, some days, though she knows that isn’t quite true.

Sora and Riku didn’t have the chance to learn things ‘the right way’, like she’s having to do. They did what they had to do in order to survive -- there’d been no time to read a few books on keyblade techniques and magical theory amidst the war that they found themselves caught up in.

Even if they had, Kairi knows for a _fact_ that Sora wouldn’t have lasted two full pages before throwing it out and going back to his weird, patchwork-like set of moves and abilities. Riku might’ve lasted a little longer, but though he was a dedicated student when the situation called for it, he, too, learned better by _doing_ than by _reading_.

A glance at the clock tells her that it’s late enough that she won’t mess up her sleep schedule if she starts getting ready for bed now. She puts away the rest of her studying materials and grabs her towel, deciding that it’s a perfect night to stay in the bathtub until her skin is all pruney.

She feels like a proper human being after getting out of the bath and putting on her softest pajamas, making a quick trip downstairs to wish her parents good night before she turns off the lights and shuffles to her bed with heavy steps, already feeling drowsy.

Kairi pulls back the covers and slides onto bed, fully prepared to sink into its familiar, comforting warmth, but what she gets instead is a slick, _slimy_ feeling that has her scrambling off the bed with a scream, staring in horror at the dark gunk covering most of her side and back.

Her dad runs up the stairs at the sound of her shout, throwing her bedroom door open with a wild look in his eyes. “What happened?!”

“T-there’s something weird in my bed!” Kairi replies in a high-pitched voice, blinking quickly when her dad turns the lights back on to inspect the mattress. Her mom follows him inside, crouching at Kairi’s side to make soothing noises at her, her hands hovering over the black slime on her daughter’s skin and clothes.

All three of them frown at the dark substance slathered over her bedsheet, wondering how in the world it could have gotten there. Pulling back the covers reveals even more of it, spread all across her bed, though her pillow has been spared; her dad runs two fingers against the substance and brings them up to his nose, sniffling in confusion.

“It’s blackberry jelly,” he says incredulously. Kairi’s frown deepens, but sniffing her own shoulder confirms it.

“How did this _happen_? We didn’t have any visitors today!” her mom huffs in disbelief.

The state of Kairi’s bed, however, is more than enough evidence to prove her mom’s statement wrong -- and Kairi already has an inkling of who could be behind this, even though she has no idea how the hell he pulled it off.

_Vanitas._

She had felt, somewhere deep down, that he wouldn’t accept that little fight in the Land of Departure as the end of their unplanned altercation. She’d been suspicious when she got to Sora’s house and found him there, but had brushed it aside as paranoia, preferring to continue ignoring his existence, thus avoiding the possibility of any further conflict.

But when did he have the _time_ to set this up???

...Come to think of it, things _had_ been suspiciously quiet downstairs for the first hour or so of Sora and Riku’s healing session, especially when she considered how loud and lively Vanitas and Rikuto had been later on. At the time, she had thought nothing of it, imagining that maybe they all went out for a quick trip to the beach or something like that.

Now she knows better. He must have figured out where she lives -- though she has no idea _how_ \-- and sneaked into her room, possibly through the window she’d left open when she left in an effort to keep her room from getting stuffy while she was away. Then, he’d put his prank into motion and went back to Sora’s house, correctly guessing that by the time she discovered what he had done, he’d already be worlds away.

“I’m pretty sure I know who it was,” Kairi slowly says, measuring each breath to keep her anger in check; she doesn’t want to give her parents any more reason to worry.

“The boys wouldn’t do this, would they?” her mom frowns.

“No, I was with them all afternoon today,” Kairi shakes her head.

“If someone sneaked in here without us knowing, we need to do something,” her dad declares in what Sora and Kairi have dubbed as his ‘Mayor voice’. “Who did this? I’ll have a talk with their parents.”

Kairi bites her lip. She had told both of them about the existence of other worlds scattered across the universe after Sora and Riku came back to the Islands in the weeks before their exam, but she knows they have a harder time accepting it than Sora’s parents or Riku’s mom. She had to plead and argue with them for _days_ before they allowed her to go off-world to be trained. They also made her promise that she’d do her absolutely best to keep herself safe about _five dozen_ times -- she has no idea how they’ll react to her telling them that the culprit doesn’t even live on the Destiny Islands.

But she does so anyway, carefully explaining the fact that Sora and Riku have been getting visits from friends from other worlds for the past few weeks -- something that comes as no surprise for her parents. The Islands are too small for anything to remain a secret for very long, and it’s not like they’ve been making any attempt of being subtle; of course they would have heard the rumours of the weird visitors that Hoshi and Aiko have been receiving.

“Is there anything we can do?” her mom asks, nervously wringing her hands. Kairi can see that it hurts them to be unable to help; usually, a few words from the Mayor would have been enough to solve a situation such as this, but her dad’s influence won’t do them any good here.

“Don’t worry, I can take care of it,” Kairi assures them with a small smile. “If anything happens, I’ll have Sora and Riku to back me up, too.”

“If you’re sure,” her dad says, a bit frustrated over not being able to help.

“I am. It’ll be fine, I promise.”

“Well, then. I think you’re gonna have to take another shower, baby, and I’ll need to act quick if we’re to keep your pajamas from staining,” her mom clicks her tongue. “You go do that and I’ll take care of the bed, alright?”

“Okay,” Kairi nods, standing up with a wince at the feel of the jelly on her skin.

She grabs a dry towel and goes back to the bathroom, feeling rage build up in the pit of her stomach at what Vanitas has done.

This time, she’ll _really_ kill him for it.

x

Sora, Riku and Kairi head straight to Radiant Garden’s lab upon arrival, just like they had done in their previous visit; the three of them would rather get it out of their way as soon as possible, freeing up the rest of the day for them to spend however they’d like.

Ienzo attends to them alone this time around. Sora and Riku take turns sitting on the machine that allows him to analyze their hearts, talking in low tones to distract themselves from the awkwardness of the situation.

“Well, there’s definitely been some improvement since your last visit,” Ienzo says once he’s taken all the measurements he’d been looking for. “Your hearts’ integrity seems to be stable, as well, which is certainly good news.”

“So we can start healing without supervision?” Sora asks, still sitting on the machine’s high chair and absentmindedly swinging his legs.

“If that is what you wish,” Ienzo tilts his head, deliberately avoiding an outright yes or no. “There’s nothing in the data to suggest that it’d be a bad course of action, so as long as you remain careful, there should be no problems in doing so.”

“Cool!” Sora exclaims, elbowing Riku with a grin.

“If we wanted to know it for sure, the ideal thing to do would be for us to oversee one of your healing sessions and gather data as it happens, but…” Ienzo hesitates, looking over each one of them in turn. “I understand that it would most likely be an unpleasant situation, so this will have to do.”

Sora sees Riku clench his jaw at his side. He thinks he can guess why the prospect of doing a session in this sterile lab would make him so jumpy; Naminé had told him a few weeks ago about how Riku would sometimes sit at the base of his pod back in the Old Mansion in the year Sora spent asleep, with nothing but white walls and silence to keep him company. The cold preciseness of Radiant Garden’s lab must be an unpleasant reminder of those times.

“How much better are they?” Kairi pipes in from Sora’s other side. “Is there any way for you to get a prediction or something of how long it’ll take for their hearts to be whole again?”

“Well, if we make a few assumptions, we can give an estimated guess in regards to how long it’ll be until Sora’s heart is complete, but we simply do not have enough data to do something similar with Riku’s,” Ienzo explains, riffling through the most recent results again. “In three weeks, Sora and Riku have rebuilt 1.92% and 1.4% of their hearts respectively, which leaves them at 88.5% and 62.7% total.”

Sora’s stomach drops to his feet. He had been expecting them to have made much more progress than that -- Riku is still missing over a third of his heart, even though they’ve been having healing sessions for four weeks! If that’s how long it’s taken them to recover barely 1.5%, just how long is it gonna take until they get the remaining 37.3%?

“If we assume that the rate of recovery of Sora’s heart is constant -- which, considering what we know on the circumstances needed for that type of healing, it’s quite likely that it is -- then it’s a simple matter of dividing the amount that Sora has recovered by how long it’s been, which is 1.92% in three weeks,” Ienzo continues, typing out his notes as he talks. “That makes it 0.64% per week, or approximately 0.09% per day. If we divide how much he still needs to rebuild by that, we get seventeen weeks, or just over four months until Sora’s heart is complete once again.”

Sora doesn’t even bother with pretending that he had followed all that; he simply latches onto the estimate at the end. Four months from now, they’ll hopefully be studying at the Disney Castle already, possibly a few months in, too, if Queen Minnie’s plan of starting classes at the end of summer goes well. It feels a bit far away, but not impossibly so as he had thought it would. Sora doesn’t mind waiting that long for himself.

“We can’t be entirely sure of that estimate until we have more data, but I would say it’s a good guess,” Ienzo nods to himself.

“Is there really no way of guessing how long it’ll take ‘till Riku’s heart is whole again?” Sora asks, unable to keep the note of petulance entirely out from his voice.

“I understand your desire for one, but there simply isn’t enough data,” Ienzo shakes his head with a small sigh. “I still believe that you’ll be able to heal more quickly as you make more progress, but there’s no way of working out how that might play into it. Any guesses we make now will likely be _very_ inaccurate; we could, say, estimate it’d take months, only to have it take years instead, you see?”

Sora’s stomach drops right into the underworld upon hearing that last part, wondering if it wouldn’t have been better to keep his mouth shut. Kairi takes one of his hands from his lap and laces their fingers, providing him quiet support -- even though he knows she’s as shaken as he is by this.

There isn’t much to say after that. The three of them agree to come by again once three more weeks have passed for another check-up; then, they’re free to go.

Ienzo stops them just as they’re about to leave the lab, however, rummaging through his desk for a moment before he hands Sora a small box.

“The King visited the Castle a week ago and asked me to give you this,” Ienzo explains. “He said it’s a gift from Chip and Dale, addressed to your friends here at Radiant Garden.”

“A gift?” Sora frowns, gently lifting the lid to look inside, catching a glimpse of multiple gummi phones. “Oh! This is great!” he exclaims, showing the content of the box to both Riku and Kairi. “Thanks, Ienzo!”

“It was no problem,” Ienzo tilts his head, giving them a small smile. “Have fun with your friends.”

“We will!” Sora grins, closing the box before he follows his friends out of the lab -- then eventually out of the Castle itself.

“Ah... fresh air,” Kairi says once they’ve made it outside, taking a deep, slow breath.

“Free at last,” Riku nods, letting his shoulders sag a little.

Sora fiddles somewhat restlessly with the package in his hands. “D’you guys wanna walk around for a bit or do you wanna head straight to Merlin’s?”

“I vote we go to Merlin’s already,” Kairi says.

“Me too,” Riku agrees.

Sora takes the lead on autopilot, humming a cheery tune from a show he’s been watching with Riku under his breath. He waves and smiles to the people that pass by them, feeling his spirits lift the closer they get to Merlin’s weird little house.

He _has_ to believe that it’s not going to take actual _years_ for Riku to be fully healed. He doesn’t want to see his best friend keep on struggling to stay awake, unable to move around with the freedom he wants or do some of the things he could wish to do, simply because he either tires too easily or because they always have to consider the distance between the two of them. He wants to see Riku go back to how he had been in the Sleeping Realm: fully alert, with a healthy flush to his skin, and ever quick to take up the opportunity to show off with a confident little smirk.

 _But_ , he amends, slowing down his steps just a little, _if it **really** has to take years, then we’ll just have to deal with it_, he thinks to himself, pushing despair aside to make way for determination to take its place. Even if it ends up making things more difficult, he won’t rush this. Riku’s heart _will_ eventually be whole again; whether it takes months or years is only a detail.

Riku laughs under his breath when Sora throws open the door to Merlin’s house with a loud bang, giving him a wry smile when Sora looks at him with raised eyebrows.

“You just can’t help yourself from doing that, can you?” Riku shakes his head with clear amusement.

“Please, this is _Sora_ we’re talking about,” Kairi grins.

The inhabitants of the house respond to their arrival before Sora gets the chance to snark back at his two best friends, and by the time the resulting conversation has winded down, he’s all but forgotten about it already.

“So, Sora, are you gonna tell us what’s in that box or are you just gonna let us die from curiosity here?” Yuffie asks him at one point, her expression as severe as she can make it.

“These are presents from the King!” Sora tells them excitedly, removing the lid and handing out the brand-new devices to his friends. Yuffie, Leon, Aerith and Cid all get one, but Sora is puzzled by the fact that two gummi phones remain in the box. “There are two extra…” he mutters, counting up his friends in a hand but being unable to pinpoint any mistakes. “Huh??”

“Oh, maybe it’s for Cloud and Tifa?” Aerith suggests, trying to figure out how to hold her own gummi phone properly.

“I didn’t know they were around!” Sora exclaims, feeling a grin spread across his face.

“They settled down in a newly renovated building some time ago,” Yuffie explains. “Tifa’s recently been able to open up her bar, the Seventh Heaven, and it’s been doing pretty well so far!”

“I guess we forgot that you didn’t know that, last time you visited,” Aerith smiles. “I was actually planning to head over there later, would you like to come with?”

“Sure!” Sora nods enthusiastically.

Sora, Riku and Kairi give the Committee a crash course on how to use the gummi phone, listing off what they can do with it and making sure they’ve all got each others’ contacts set up. Cid and Leon take to it unsurprisingly quickly, though Cid complains about how small the screen is; Yuffie calls him an old man for that, starting up a heated back and forth between them that the rest of them decide to completely ignore.

“There’s one more thing,” Sora says, slightly bouncing on the balls of his feet, putting his own gummi phone on the table so that the others can see the screen. “Hey, mini-me, you in there?” he asks in the direction of the device, grinning at the confused looks he gets from Aerith and Leon.

“Sure am!” Data-Sora says, popping into existence in a corner of his screen; even Yuffie and Cid lean in to get a better look. “What can I do for you today, other me?” he asks, folding his hands behind his head in a pose Sora’s friends know all too well.

“Oh my god, he’s got your baby voice,” Yuffie whispers incredulously.

“I’d like to introduce you to some of my friends!” Sora tells his data-self, electing to ignore Yuffie’s comment. “They’ve all gotten gummi phones of their own today, so I thought we could show them some of the things you can do!”

“Oh, a demonstration!” Data-Sora grins wide, getting right to work with poking around Sora’s files. “How about some music?” he asks, fiddling with the volume for a second before he presses play in one of the songs Sora had managed to download with his data-self’s help.

Cid’s mouth falls open. “He can do that all by himself? With voice-activated commands?”

“Yep!” Sora says, feeling quite proud of the data version of himself. “He can move between devices too, right mini-me?”

Data-Sora nods, putting the song on pause before he disappears from Sora’s screen.

“Where did he go?” Yuffie frowns.

A second later, they all hear music coming from Kairi’s direction, which makes her jump a little before she pulls her own gummi phone out of her pocket to show them the screen.

“Ta-da!” Data-Sora grins, returning to Sora’s device immediately after that.

“Can you be in more than one gummi phone at the same time?” Cid asks with a glint in his eyes.

“I can.”

“Is it difficult to do it? Does it take a lot of computing power?”

Data-Sora scratches his cheek. “I don’t know? It doesn’t _feel_ difficult or anything, but Riku is the one that takes care of all this, with Chip and Dale’s help,” he shrugs. Cid’s gaze briefly lifts to the Riku that’s standing beside Kairi, which makes Data-Sora chuckle. “No, I meant my Riku -- Data-Riku. He’s the one that keeps an eye on the whole network thing.”

Sora sits back while the others continue to ask questions to his data-self, figuring out what other functions he has and stuff. Cid gives up on learning more about how Data-Sora works in general after figuring out that the data version is only _slightly_ less clueless about how technology works than his real-world counterpart, accepting Data-Sora’s promise to see if Data-Riku can talk with him later instead.

Aerith approaches Kairi while the rest of the group is busy with their gummi phones and pulls her aside for a few minutes, giving her a hug before disappearing into the kitchen for some time. When Sora asks Kairi about it later, she tells him that Aerith had just wanted to see how she was doing after the news she’d received on her last visit, so Sora gives her a brief hug as well.

Aerith comes out of the kitchen with a wicker basket in one arm and an enthusiastic smile on her face. “Ready to meet Cloud and Tifa again?” she asks Sora. “Or, for the first time,” she amends with a glance at both Riku and Kairi, smothering her laugh with a hand.

“Yeah!” Sora says, jumping to his feet in excitement. He says goodbye to Data-Sora before pocketing his gummi phone, then waves at the others as they head out, letting Aerith lead the way to the Seventh Heaven.

Cloud is sitting at the bar when they arrive, listening to Tifa with a stoicism that reminds Sora of Leon. Tifa lights up at the sight of the four of them, making Sora find it a little hard to believe that this is the same grave-faced woman that he met during his second adventure.

“Aerith, hey! Good timing, I was just about to get started on lunch!” she smiles, accepting the basket that Aerith hands her with a nod before turning to the three islanders. “Welcome to Seventh Heaven! Sora, Riku and Kairi, right? The others have told me about you guys, though I remember meeting you before, Sora.”

“Yeah, you did!” Sora smiles, jumping onto a bar stool. “You were looking for Cloud, then.”

“And now I’ve found him,” Tifa says, releasing a quiet little huff, looking at Cloud with her hands on her hips. Cloud lets out a small groan, turning his face away from her unrelenting stare.

“What are you going to be making for lunch?” Aerith asks once the silence has stretched on long enough, pulling Tifa’s attention away from Cloud.

Tifa winks. “It’s a surprise!”

“Cloud, why don’t you show the boys the games we have here in the bar? I think Kairi would like hearing some of the stories Tifa has about how Radiant Garden used to be,” Aerith smiles sweetly, guiding Kairi to a stool as she all but shoos the three boys away.

Cloud sighs heavily. “Sure,” he says, sending Sora and Riku a brief glance over his shoulder to make sure they’re following as he makes his way to the dartboard, gesturing at the two game machines next to it with a disinterested wave. He picks up the darts as Sora and Riku approach a pinball machine, leaving the two of them to their own devices.

“Riku, doesn’t this remind you of that water barrel kinda thing we did with the dream eaters?” Sora inquires, looking it over with an eager eye. “Though this one is, like, way more complicated.”

“It does,” Riku hums. “You’re gonna play?”

“Yeah! Do you wanna play too?”

“Sure,” Riku shrugs.

Sora fishes his munny bag out of one of his pockets -- not the bottomless ones today, Aiko had berated them for always wearing the clothes the fairies gave them instead of the new ones they had bought -- and inserting a coin into the machine. He and Riku take turns at it, giving each other advice when they fail to think of a move, as well as alternating between cheering when the other gets a high score and competing for the best score.

They turn to look at the bar counter upon hearing the girls’ laughter, watching Kairi interact with Aerith and Tifa for a long moment.

“Why do I get the feeling that they’re gonna steal Kairi from us?” Sora mutters to Riku with a frown.

“I don’t know, but I’m getting that feeling too,” Riku replies, ignoring the tune that prompts him to start another round.

“‘Cause they already have,” Cloud says at their side, pulling the darts off of the board. “Good luck getting her back,” he adds with the slightest of smirks.

Sora crosses his arms. “We found her first!” he protests, exaggerating the petulance in his voice in a way he knows will make Riku laugh.

“If you use that argument against them, I bet they’ll say that since Kairi’s from Radiant Garden, they have a fair claim,” Riku points out.

“They would,” Cloud snorts.

The three of them continue to busy themselves with the games for another fifteen minutes, then Kairi calls Riku over with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Sora starts to follow, but Kairi tells him to stay put with an expression that leaves no room for arguments, so Sora lingers by the pinball machine with crossed arms and a pout on his face.

“Don’t tell me they’re gonna try to steal _Riku_ too!” he whines, watching the four of them interact. Cloud fails to contain a short laugh, making Sora look at him with wide eyes and a smile.

Sora watches him throw darts over and over again for a little while, cheering quietly when he manages to hit bullseye three times in a row.

“Hey,” Cloud says eventually, his face back to its usual seriousness in a way that has Sora straightening his back in response. “Found your light?” he asks after a beat, tilting his head in the bar’s direction.

The exact direction in which Cloud tilted his head -- a bit more to the left, towards where Riku was standing, rather than at the center of the group -- has Sora thinking that Cloud is referring to someone in _particular_ , which makes him feel like his face is on fire and forces him to duck said face out of Cloud’s sight as he quietly splutters.

Were it not for his recent discovery of his little crush on Riku, he wouldn’t have batted an eye at Cloud’s statement, but thoughts about _Riku_ and _romance_ have been flying around his head _at the same time_ for the past week or so -- which makes him see Cloud’s question in a different light, _which in turn_ sends his heart into overdrive.

When Sora risks a glance at Riku from the corner of his eyes, he finds his best friend looking at him already -- something that fills Sora’s stomach with so many butterflies that he kind of feels like he might puke. He turns his face away from Riku’s gaze in a desperate attempt at self-preservation, staring at a silently expectant Cloud instead.

“Yeah,” Sora says at last, trying not to think too much about how red his face must be. “I have.”

Cloud nods. “That’s good,” he says, turning back to the dartboard immediately after. Sora sends a prayer of thanks to the heavens that Cloud has chosen not to comment on Sora’s weird chain of expressions.

“Lunch’s ready!” Tifa calls a few minutes later, thankfully once Sora has finally managed to calm himself down.

The six of them settle around one of the bar’s tables once they’ve all made their plates, filling the empty space around them with their conversation. Kairi appears to really have hit it off with Aerith and Tifa; Sora is glad for it despite the way in which he’d halfway joked with Riku about the two women stealing Kairi from them, because he’s always happy to see his friends becoming friends themselves.

He doesn’t realize how hard he’s smiling until Riku gently elbows him on his side and asks him what’s got him so happy; he’s smiling too, however, clearly unable to remain unaffected by Sora’s grin.

Sora shrugs. “I’m just happy,” he replies, leaning closer until their arms touch.

Which is the truth; Sora _is_ happy -- in a simple, effortless way that he hasn’t been in a while. His friends are all alive and as well as they can be; he’s got plans for the future with his two _bestest_ friends ever _**and**_ there are no universe-threatening enemies knocking stuff around for the moment. Sora kind of feels like they should throw a big party to celebrate all that, after having spent two years -- or over a decade, in Aqua, Terra and Ventus’ case -- hopelessly locked in a war against Xehanort.

“Yeah? That’s good,” Riku says, playfully knocking their elbows together.

And then, to top it all off, Sora’s also happy to have the time and space to explore his new feelings for Riku; to have a chance to figure out what the fuss about romance is all about. Sure, it can be a bit nerve wracking to be so close to the subject of your affections _all the time_ , but crush or not, it’s still Riku -- his best friend ever since they were literal babies; a boy he has spent more time being near to than being away from, even taking the past two years under consideration.

For all the moments in which it feels like his heart is going to beat out of his chest or like he could _fry an egg_ on his overheated cheeks, there are dozens upon dozens of moments of them just hanging out and existing in the same space, with no thoughts of crushes or romance of any kind. Sora likes it that that’s the case -- that even though he’s discovered the existence of feelings that go beyond friendship, the bonds between them remain strong as ever.

He doesn’t know what the future holds for him in that particular aspect; he doesn’t know if it’s going to fizzle out or if it’s going to slowly grow into something more instead, but he also doesn’t _mind_ not knowing. He’ll just take the chance to figure it out as he continues to move towards the future, with his friends always by his side.

For now, he’s more than happy to hang out with them and enjoy the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live in a coastal city near the equator, and I can confirm that high tide storms _are_ the best — so long as you don't have to go out of the house that day AND that the area you live in doesn't get flooded. Otherwise, it's absolute hell.  
> I love the idea of Aiko choosing to adopt Vanitas even though the only thing he has in common with Sora is his appearance. I'm of the firm opinion that all of those kids (yes, even Aqua and Terra) need some goddamn parents, and since no one else is gonna do it, Aiko, Daichi and Hoshi might as well get the extended family they never had.  
> I also love thinking that Rikuto managed to retain all the borderline arrogant smugness that Riku grew out off after the events of KH1. The friendship he has with Vanitas is one built on snark and sass; Rikuto is one of the only peeps in existence that can insult Vanitas and not die, mostly because he can def hold his own in a fight against Vanitas and that's too entertaining for Vanitas to throw away.  
> Kairi was the target of the angst knife on this chapter. She's so focused on how far she still has to go to get to the others' level that she doesn't really stop to appreciate how far she's already progressed; she had deadass no training less than a year ago, and now she's even been able to hold her own on a fight against Xehanort! (on the dlc) But she will get better with time and practice, and the boys are gonna be fine ❤️ (her worries are still entirely valid tho, the boys have put her through some real shit smh)  
> I didn't want to choose names for Kairi's parents... I mean, I even got around making up names for Sora's and Riku's by asking to use greeneggs101's instead >_>  
> Data-Sora calling Data-Riku "my" Riku.......... I continue to be a shameless hoe >;3c  
> Now that I've played FF7R, I finally felt like I could add Cloud (and Tifa!) in here. I was like _foaming_ at the mouth once I thought up that little interaction between him and Sora in regards to whether Sora had found his light, because dear god am I weak for the fact that Riku IS the light we've been shown so many times.  
> With this chapter, I've officially finished setting stuff up. All the cards are now on the table, so all that's left is to shuffle them around in a way that will eventually lead us to the end. There's still a fair amount of fic to go through, but I estimate that it's gonna take between 11 and 16 chapters to finish things, which is a number I'm pretty confident in even though I could always be wrong.  
> My author's notes are always so long.... I'd apologize, but Look, I just got a lotta stuff to say, ok?? It's taken me 96k to put all the cards on the table, y'all should know by now that I'm a wordy bitch. A wordy bitch that loves y'all and y'all's support very much ❤️


	16. Chapter 15

Two weeks later, early on Friday, everyone decides to travel to the Mysterious Tower for an extended weekend stay. The “official” reason for this meeting is that they need to iron out the details of how classes at the Disney Castle are going to work, but Sora knows pretty well that a big part of why they’re doing this in person -- as opposed to organizing things through their gummi phones -- is just that they’d like to spend time together as a larger group again.

When Sora tells Kairi about it, she smiles so _evilly_ that he takes an instinctual step back, exchanging a fearful glance with Riku at the murderous aura that flares up around her. She brushes off all of their attempts to figure out what she’s planning, so Sora drops it eventually, wishing to avoid annoying her too much lest her wrath lands on _him_.

There are a lot of decisions to make in preparation for their upcoming school year. For starters, they are all in different grades; Sora had stopped in freshman year; Riku -- and thus, Rikuto as well -- had stopped in sophomore year; and, in their absence, Kairi had gone all the way to junior year. Ventus had been homeschooled with Aqua and Terra during his four years at the Land of Departure, so his school level was closer to the islanders’, which made the four of them a nice little group.

Vanitas and the Nobodies, meanwhile, have never received any formal education at all, though they _have_ retained some of the knowledge from their Somebodies (or from Ventus, in Vanitas’ case). Their unique origins, however, means that said knowledge isn’t trulyy _conscious_ ; they can’t really explain the things they do know, or give any details.

Aqua and Terra studied under Master Eraqus’ tutelage from early childhood, so there’s no need for them to participate in classes from the basic curriculum. Axel and Isa had basically dropped out at fifteen, upon being turned into Nobodies, but neither have any real desire to go back to school in their mid-twenties -- though Axel has shown an interest in some of the electives Queen Minnie has offered them.

Sora decides right away that he wants to be in the same classes as Riku, even if this means having to do more work in order for them to stay at the same level. One of Sora’s biggest hang-ups about school on the Destiny Islands -- aside from the entire ‘studying things you’ll probably never use once you’re done with school’ thing -- had been not being able to be in the same classes as Riku, seeing as his best friend was a year older than him.

Sora still has very faint memories of the year in which Riku entered first grade, but even if he didn’t, it wouldn’t make much of a difference; Daichi took great pleasure in recounting how Sora had whined and cried for _weeks_ upon discovering that Riku wouldn’t be attending the same creche anymore. Now that Sora finally has the chance to study with Riku again after almost a decade, he’s definitely not going to pass it up.

Kairi and Rikuto’s placements, however, are not as straightforward. Kairi can complete her traditional education in a year if she applies herself to it, but that would mean sprinting ahead of her friends and finishing her schooling before anyone else; similarly so, if Rikuto were to join Sora, Riku and Ventus’ group, he would be done with school possibly _years_ before his own friends.

In the end, both Kairi and Rikuto choose to spend their first year at the Disney Castle Academy working on the offered electives as well as on refreshing their knowledge of the years they’ve already completed, allowing them to study alongside their friends in the following year -- an idea that makes Sora _very_ excited.

The Queen had suggested a schedule that consisted of them staying at the Disney Castle from Monday to Thursday, with morning and afternoon classes; which would allow them to go back to their homeworlds for the weekend if they so wished. She brushes away any of their worries over school supplies or housing situations, assuring them that providing such things would be no trouble at all; the Castle is _more_ than big enough to house all of them comfortably; she also insists that paying for their supplies is the least they can do for the keyblade wielders that have saved the Realm of Light so many times.

They do all this talking and decision-making on Friday afternoon, just after the Twilight Town gang finally arrives; as a direct consequence, they end up having the entire rest of the weekend to spend as they see fit.

Kairi makes herself scarce for about an hour before dinnertime, which makes Sora and Riku somewhat nervous considering how she’s been spacing out while smirking maliciously lately. Sora would ask, but he’s not sure he wants to know what’s left her in such a state. None of those smirks had been directed at _him_ , fortunately; as such, it’s easier to accept that he’ll just have to wait and see.

Dinner is a lively affair, especially since all _thirteen_ of them are eating at the same time. Once everyone has eaten their fill, they make their way to one of so-called ‘rec rooms’ that springs up whenever they want a place to hang out at, molding itself to the wishes of the involved parties.

Xion and Naminé head to one of the room’s corners almost immediately. The Tower has granted Xion’s request for a guitar, so she picks it up and starts to play some of the tunes she’s been learning, with Naminé quietly drawing on her ever-present sketchpad atop the adjacent sofa cushion.

Vanitas, Axel, Isa, Aqua and Terra settle to play cards around a fairly large table. Sora steers clear of it -- all five of them have a competitive glint in their eyes that borders on bloodlust, _especially so_ in Vanitas’ case; a crystal-clear sign for Sora that he _definitely_ doesn’t want any part in the violence that will inevitably follow.

Instead, he gathers up the stragglers -- Riku, Kairi, Roxas, Ventus and Rikuto -- to play a few dozen rounds of a quick and easy ball game that’s popular on the Islands, in which they have to toss the ball around for a set amount of passes -- without letting it hit the floor -- so as to try to hit someone with said ball on the last pass to eliminate them from that round, with the objective of having only one person remain.

Sora’s thankful that the ball they’ve found for this game is pretty light and bouncy, because once Roxas and Ventus get the hang of it, everyone is out for _blood_. Sora, Riku, Kairi and Rikuto stumble a bit at first as well, unused to playing with a ball that bounces off instead of just flopping pathetically to the floor; back on the Islands, they usually played this with balled-up paper -- crumpling up a few notebook pages to make one that was substantial enough without being deadly.

Unsurprisingly, the wins are divided up pretty evenly amongst the six of them. All of them have fairly good aim as a result of their battle training, so luck ends up playing a bigger role than skill in deciding who emerges victorious from each round, though this obviously doesn’t stop the latest winner from gloating up a storm every time.

They get tired of it eventually, dividing up into smaller groups. Ventus and Rikuto decide to watch the slowly-escalating conflict taking place amidst the card-playing quintet; Riku and Kairi settle on a sofa to talk in low tones; and Sora and Roxas continue to pass the ball between them as they talk, keeping a running score of how many times each of them lets it hit the floor.

Kairi and Roxas join the quintet when they start playing Egyptian Ratscrew, and it’s not long before the room is filled by the sound of slapping hands and loud curses. Sora can’t decide whether to laugh or grimace as he watches the game unfold -- he can personally attest to how ruthless a player Kairi is, but it looks like the others are not far behind, either; Sora is happy to keep his hands far away from that mess, thank you very much.

He and Riku find another deck of cards after rummaging around some nearby drawers, managing to convince Naminé and Xion to participate in a few rounds of Rummy. It takes the girls a couple of rounds to get a good grasp of the rules, but from then on it’s smooth sailing, unlike what’s happening at the larger table.

Axel is the first to bow out, blowing on his tomato-red hand in an effort to cool it down. Ventus casts a modified Blizzard to help him along, laughing loudly at Axel’s grumpy expression; the rest of the table just gets more competitive in his absence, with every single one of them determined to be the last one standing.

Naminé heads off to her bedroom half an hour later, quietly explaining that she’d woken up considerably early that day to help Aqua with some task or another at the Land of Departure’s castle. Rikuto wishes her good night when he sees her move toward the wide doorway, but Vanitas is too focused on the game to do the same, which makes both of his friends chuckle.

Terra is the next one to call it quits, joking that he’d better stop before the bones of his hands are ground into dust by the others. Sora can see Riku start to droop next to him, but he brushes off Sora’s offers to head to bed, claiming that he wants to watch the ongoing death match for a while longer -- they have a duty to cheer Kairi on as her best friends, after all.

It doesn’t take very long after that for Isa to stop playing as well; Roxas follows suit at the end of the very next round, leaving the table to sprawl by Xion’s side as he clutches his abused hand to his chest.

“Those three are _insane_ ,” he grumbles, shooting Aqua, Kairi and Vanitas a disgruntled look.

With no one else left to mediate the dispute, the three of them have abandoned all pretenses of being civil. Sora can’t help but wince at the sound of every slap, shuddering at the thought of how much pain they must be in.

“Do you think we should stop them?” he asks very hesitantly, exchanging concerned glances with Riku and Xion.

Roxas turns to him as if Sora had grown two extra heads. “Do you _want_ to die, or are you just stupid?” he hisses, somewhere between annoyed and incredulous. “If any of us try to butt in, their wrath might turn to us instead!”

“But we can’t just let them keep on going like that either,” Xion frowns. “Do you think they’ll give up eventually?”

“I doubt it,” Roxas scoffs.

“And I bet Vanitas would rather eat his own keyblade than admit defeat, especially to Aqua and Kairi,” Riku sighs.

Sora whines in response. “Then what do we do?”

“Well, _I’m_ off to bed,” Roxas declares, jumping to his feet without ceremony. “Not gonna stand around and end up witnessing a murder.”

“I think I’m going too,” Xion says, trying to stifle a yawn that immediately spreads to both Sora and Riku. “Sorry,” she giggles, wiping away a stray tear. Sora waves off her apology.

Riku deflates in the wake of his jaw-cracking yawn, blinking owlishly at his amused best friend.

 _He’s so cute_ , Sora thinks, resisting the urge to card his fingers through Riku’s silver hair.

“We should get going too,” Sora smiles softly, shifting to press the side of his knee to Riku’s thigh. “There’s nothing we can really do in here.”

“Yeah,” Riku exhales slowly, fighting to keep his eyes open. Sora almost feels bad for not having herded him to bed earlier, but he pushes the feeling aside, seeing as it had been Riku’s choice to stick around.

Ventus startles out of his doze against Terra’s side when Sora goes to say his goodbyes to them, making both Sora and Terra laugh a little bit. Isa and Rikuto offer to stay behind to keep an eye on the murderous trio as a way to make sure no blood is actually spilled; Terra agrees to stay as well, urging Ventus to go to bed instead.

Ventus asks if they can make a quick detour to the kitchen for a quick snack to fill his rumbling stomach and Riku agrees, even though he’s so sleep-drunk that Sora doesn’t know if he should really be trusted to take the Tower’s endless stairs without it ending in disaster. Sora hovers at his side for the entire way downstairs, snorting silently as he watches Riku nod off with his cheek resting on one of his hands once they settle on a table.

“Is his exhaustion still not getting any better?” Ventus whispers, shoving an entire cookie inside his mouth.

Sora shifts in his seat, absentmindedly mimicking Riku’s position. “It _is_ getting better, just not very quickly,” he sighs. “He’s been tiring a little less easily, but he still sleeps way more than he used to.”

“But your healing things in the past two weeks have gone well, right?”

“Mm, yeah. We’re supposed to go to Radiant Garden again next week.”

Riku blinks sluggishly. “I’m still here, you know,” he says, shooting for dry and coming off half-asleep instead -- which is a feat, seeing as he _appears_ to be about ninety percent asleep.

“Barely,” Sora grins.

“Shut up,” Riku huffs, but his words have absolutely no heat to them.

They head back upstairs once Ventus finishes eating, shuffling around like zombies -- the only difference is that instead of being on the hunt for brains, they’re hunting for their beds. Just when Sora and Riku are about to split from Ventus, they hear a startled yell, followed by a long string of curses that has all three of them standing at attention, their instincts preparing them for battle despite their exhaustion.

They sprint towards the source of the scream, going past a handful of maze-like corridors before they finally reach the correct place -- only to find a scene that makes them stop on their tracks.

“Oh no,” Ventus mutters in a forlorn tone as Sora and Riku grimace.

Axel stands stock still a few of meters away from them with the upper part of his body absolutely _covered_ in what seems to be egg goop, a whole bag of flour and however many cloves of crushed-up garlic, if the smell is anything to go by -- so much so that his distinctively red hair is now almost entirely white.

“What the actual _fuck_ is this,” Axel snarls when he notices them standing there. It could be just Sora’s imagination, but he thinks the corridor has just gotten a couple degrees warmer. “Did the three of you do this!?”

Ventus raises his hands in surrender immediately. “Hey, we had nothing to do with this! We just ran here when we heard you scream!”

Sora and Riku shake their heads emphatically when Axel glares at them; his movement causes small droplets of egg yolk and flour to splatter against the floor, which in turn makes the three of them take a cautious step back.

“Maybe it was Vanitas?” Sora asks in an urgent whisper, hoping that Axel can’t hear him.

“I don’t think Vanitas would go after Axel without provocation,” Ventus replies, his voice just as quiet as Sora’s.

As far as any of them know, Axel and Vanitas have barely ever interacted outside of group meetings, but that’s not really reassuring -- it wouldn’t take much to set Vanitas off, and Axel is rarely careful with what he says; he could always have done something that Vanitas found insulting without even noticing.

Sora, Riku and Ventus fidget awkwardly for a few seconds, unsure of how to proceed, but they’re saved from being the target of Axel’s anger any longer by the arrival of the group that had stayed behind in the rec room.

Vanitas is the last to truly arrive at the scene, walking leisurely behind the other five. He barks out a loud laugh upon catching sight of the glowering, positively _seething_ Axel, then promptly falls into a laughing fit so intense that it has him clutching his stomach with tears in his eyes.

He doesn’t even seem to notice the multiple frowns and glares being directed at him; it takes Ventus tentatively asking if Vanitas was the one behind this prank for him to realize that _he_ is the main suspect.

“I _wish_! This is _great!_ ” he chokes out between bouts of laughter, lowering himself to a crouch to see if it’ll help him catch his breath.

“If Vanitas didn’t do it… then who did?” Rikuto asks, clearly confused.

Axel glowers at each of them in turn, challenging the culprit to own up to their handiwork. The fierceness of his glare has Sora squirming uncomfortably, even though he _knows_ he’s innocent. This goes on for about a full minute, with the corridor deadly silent save for Vanitas’ breathless chuckles.

“You’re looking suspiciously nervous there, _Kairi_ ,” Axel bites out, redirecting everyone’s attention to her. Sora kind of agrees -- she _does_ look pretty guilty.

Kairi fidgets in silence for a few seconds, shifting her weight from foot to foot. “...It wasn’t meant to hit you,” she confesses with a grimace.

Vanitas laughs even harder upon hearing her say that, desperately banging his fist against the floor. Sora wonders if something has happened between Kairi and Vanitas; Kairi hadn’t told him anything, but Sora wouldn’t be surprised if it had. At the very least, it would shed some light onto Kairi’s recent strange behaviour.

“What you _meant_ doesn’t really matter right now,” Axel opens his arms, clearly unimpressed.

“I’m really sorry!” Kairi hurries to say, bowing her head slightly. “I should have been more careful…”

Axel considers her for a long moment. He still hasn’t really moved from the spot Sora, Riku and Ventus found him in; the ground around him is littered with egg shells, flour and clumps of garlic. One of said egg shells breaks further under his foot when he adjusts his stance slightly, but he doesn’t pay it any mind.

“Tell you what,” he says, deceptively cheery. “If you give me a hug, I’ll accept your apology and call us even,” he offers, smiling dangerously as he takes a step in her direction with open arms.

Kairi scrunches up her nose in disgust, taking an instinctive step back. Sora can almost _see_ the argument she’s having with herself, and he’d laugh if the situation wasn’t so tense.

Axel stops. “You’re _not gonna give me a hug_ , Kairi?” he asks with an undercurrent of steel that has Sora gulping in alarm.

Kairi studies Axel for a second, taking full stock of the results of her handiwork, then _bolts_ away.

Axel gives chase immediately, having already expected such a thing. All the others jump out of his way, wincing at the trail of egg yolk that he leaves in his wake.

Most of them share concerned glances once Axel and Kairi have moved out of sight. Vanitas _still_ hasn’t stopped laughing, which is kind of amazing, if Sora’s being honest; he’d always thought that people only rolled on the floor as they laughed in books and tv shows, but Vanitas is doing his best to prove him wrong tonight.

“Should we do something?” Ventus frowns.

“The only thing we can do now is be careful,” Isa sighs. “Lea won’t forget this so easily.”

“This thing keeps escalating,” Rikuto huffs.

None of them are surprised by the indistinct shouts that pop up a few minutes later. The Tower doesn’t really obey the laws of physics, so the fact that they’re hearing the yells of two people that are technically way outside of their hearing range is definitely not the weirdest thing they have experienced in their time there.

The silence in their group is broken by the sound of soft footsteps, announcing the arrival of a bleary-eyed and indignant Roxas.

“What the hell’s goin’ on here? Don’t you know some of us are tryin’ to _sleep?_ ” he glares at whoever he lays his eyes on.

“There’s been, uh… an accident,” Sora attempts to explain, making a wide gesture towards the mess that has been left on the floor.

Sora can basically see his Nobody putting it all together: the evidence left behind on the corridor, the fact that Vanitas is _still_ letting out the occasional helpless giggle, and just who, exactly, is missing from their group. The shouts that drift up to them in the next few seconds are just the cherry on top.

Roxas sighs raggedly. “What now, then?”

“They’ll have to stop running around at some point, right? Then hopefully they’ll go to their rooms for the night,” Ventus wonders tentatively.

“Hopefully,” Sora mutters.

They move closer to the wall upon noticing that Axel and Kairi’s voices are now coming from the outside of the Tower, sidestepping the splatters on the floor to crowd around the windows. This allows them to watch as Kairi runs towards Sora’s gummi ship, scrambling up the ramp and closing it _just_ before Axel can catch up.

Sora doesn’t even bother to hide the sigh of relief that passes through his lips at the sight, because cleaning _that_ up would be a special kind of torture.

“ _Fine!_ ” Axel yells, god knows how many stories below them. “If you won’t own up to it, I’m gonna find a way to make you _pay_ for this, do you hear me?!”

Axel turns on his heel and stalks back to the inside of the Tower after that lovely threat, leaving absolute silence on his wake. Sora stays near the window long enough to see Kairi cautiously lower the ramp, probably wondering if Axel had just pretended to give up the chase so that he could catch her with her guard down later on.

“That’s the end of that,” Terra mutters, stepping away from one of the star-shaped windows.

“We should all go to bed,” Aqua suggests. “It’s getting late.”

The exhaustion had been creeping back in for a good few minutes by now, but at the mention of bed, the entire rest of it just slams right onto Sora. Someone yawns; a few beats later, the yawn has spread to the entire group, leaving most of them with sagging shoulders and half-lidded eyes.

Riku stumbles when he attempts to take a step, prompting Sora to duck under his arm and put one of his own arms around Riku’s waist for support. Terra offers to help him take Riku to their room, but Sora brushes it off with a smile, assuring the other that he can handle it.

Sora guides Riku to the bathroom so he can get changed and brush his teeth, the latter of which Riku does with his eyes closed. Sora has to tap his arm every few seconds to make sure he doesn’t fall asleep with his toothbrush still in his mouth, which is equal parts adorable and sad.

He deposits Riku on one of the beds before making quick work of his own bedtime routine, taking a moment to let his eyes adjust to the darkness once he’s turned off the bathroom’s light.

Riku makes a soft noise when Sora climbs onto bed beside him, curling his arm around Sora’s waist in a way that has Sora smiling onto his shoulder as he follows Riku into the land of dreams.

x

Axel still smells _strongly_ of egg and garlic the following day, which surprises exactly no one.

Early in the morning, Ventus stops by Sora and Riku’s room to invite them to the large arena in the dimensional pocket that Axel and Kairi had trained in, explaining that he and the others are planning to take advantage of how they’re all hanging out in one place to spar with different people, but Sora gestures at the still-sleeping Riku with an apologetic smile and a promise to join them later.

Sora spends some time knitting yet another scarf as he waits for Riku to wake on his own. Riku had laughed when Sora gave voice to his plans of making scarves for _all_ of their friends, especially since none of them live in worlds that get cold enough to require the use of one, but Sora remains undeterred. It’s just another way of letting his friends know he appreciates them; one that keeps his hands busy and his mind occupied.

The two of them head to the training area after grabbing a late breakfast once Riku finally wakes up. Sora smiles at the sight of everyone hanging out on the raised benches around the arena, exchanging greetings with them before he leads Riku to where Naminé is sitting with a book on her lap.

“Hey!” Sora greets her with a wide grin.

“Hello,” Naminé responds, giving Riku a small wave as well. “I heard about what happened last night. I’m kind of surprised Xion and I didn’t wake up -- Rikuto said it was all very loud.”

“Kairi and I actually have a theory about that,” Riku replies, taking a seat next to her. “We think that the Tower just blocks out all outside noise if you’re asleep, so you and Xion wouldn’t have heard anything. Roxas was still awake, so he _did_ hear it.”

“That makes sense,” Sora hums. “So, Naminé, how have the fights gone so far?” he grins, tilting his head towards the ring, where Kairi and Rikuto are sparring.

Naminé tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. “Well, I’m pretty sure everyone has sparred at least once by now, but they’re all eager to try out new combos and the like, so they’ve just kept going.”

“How’s Lea doing?” Riku asks, scanning the area with mild interest. “I doubt he’s going to take what happened last night lying down.”

“Xion said he was ‘suspiciously quiet’,” Naminé replies. “He was here earlier, but he left without a word about an hour ago. Isa went to look for him to ‘make sure he behaves’, according to what Roxas heard.”

“I hope Isa finds him in time to stop anything he might be planning,” Riku sighs.

“Me too,” Naminé nods.

The three of them watch the next few matches mostly in silence, with Sora and Riku occasionally commenting on a certain move or apparent strategy of whoever is fighting at the moment. Ventus eventually makes his way to their bench, grinning brightly at them as a greeting; Chirithy gives them all a little wave from its position in Ventus’ arms.

“Chirithy!” Sora exclaims, leaning closer to the small dream eater. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you!” he pouts, then looks up at Ventus. “I wanted to ask about him when we visited you guys, but it completely slipped my mind.”

Ventus laughs. “He doesn’t stay around _all_ the time -- mostly when I’m about to go to sleep or when I’m doing something on my own,” he explains, then lowers his voice into a teasing tone: “I’ve asked him where he goes off to, but he won’t tell me. Isn’t that right, Chirithy?”

Chirithy’s only response is to hum with its eyes closed, happily dangling off of Ventus’ arms. Naminé hides a giggle with her hand as Sora and Ventus exchange grins.

“Well, he deserves his own secrets too, right?” Sora chuckles. He holds out his hands. “Can I hold him?”

Ventus sits beside him on the bench and opens his arms, allowing Chirithy to jump over to Sora’s lap. Sora can’t help the coo that escapes him as he starts to pet the Spirit’s soft fur, silently encouraging Naminé to do the same when he sees her curious expression.

“He’s so soft,” Naminé says with wonder in her voice. Chirithy leans into her hand when she scratches the sensitive spot behind its ear, making her giggle again.

“Makes me miss my own dream eaters,” Sora smiles. “What do you say, Riku? Don’t you think we’re due for another visit to the Sleeping Worlds?” he raises his eyebrows, throwing his best friend a happy smirk.

Riku huffs, aiming for exasperated and landing on fond instead. “Why not?” he says with a slight shrug. “Don’t let Lea catch wind of that, though.”

“Aww, don’t be like that, Riku,” Sora laughs. “You _know_ we’ll eventually have to share our skills with the others.”

“Doesn’t mean we can’t put it off for as long as we can, though,” Riku fires back, letting a touch of his old arrogance come out in his smirk as he reaches around Naminé to ruffle Sora’s hair none too gently.

Sora knows that Riku doesn’t really mean what he’s saying; not in the way his old self would have meant, before the Islands fell. _That_ Riku used to take a fair amount of pride in knowing things that the others didn’t -- be it battle moves or academic knowledge -- because it made him look cool and allowed him to show off, but he has grown past that at some point the past two years. These days, Riku wais way more willing to share what he knows with others, even if he still puts up a front of disliking it every once in a while, for old times’ sake.

Don’t get him wrong, Riku still very much likes to show off whenever he can -- and if Sora is being honest, which he always tries to be, Riku always looks _damn good_ doing it -- but he has learned to be a bit more careful with his timing, which stops it from looking like gloating.

Ventus leaves Chirithy with them when Roxas comes around to challenge him to yet another match, much to Sora and Naminé’s joy. They pet and scratch the small Spirit until its melting in bliss, its stubby legs kicking out every now and then in a way that makes Sora want to cry from an overdose of cuteness.

God, he really needs to pay another visit to his dream eaters.

Watching his friends happily spar just a few meters away, Sora can’t help but feel a pang of melancholy over not being able to join in the fun. He doesn’t let himself to linger too much on it -- he knows that Riku would feel like a burden all over again if he realized Sora was having these thoughts -- but it still stings a little to be left out; to be on the outside, looking in.

Sora lets out a slow exhale and pictures the feeling going away with it, smiling down at the Spirit on his lap to further dispel any signs that he’s ever thought about such a thing. He whispers a request to Naminé, gathering up Chirithy in his arms at her nod with a soft noise of reassurance, then proceeds to switch places with her so that he’s sitting next to Riku while still allowing Naminé access to the dream eater.

Riku gives him a half smirk and a raised eyebrow at the move; Sora grins unapologetically, letting their arms brush together for a moment before he goes back to petting Chirithy. When Riku leans over to give the Spirit a few scratches of his own, Sora doesn’t even try to hide his smile.

Eventually, though, everyone starts to get hungry, given that it’s lunch time and most of them have been sparring for hours by now. They leave the training space all at the same time, splitting up into small groups on their way to the kitchen: Roxas and Ventus at the front, discussing their last spar; Kairi and Xion exchanging battle tips right behind them; Rikuto and Vanitas walking mostly in silence a few paces behind; with Terra, Aqua, Sora, Riku, Naminé and Chirithy bringing up the rear.

They don’t see Axel or Isa at any point during their walk to the kitchen, which is certainly suspicious, but there’s nothing they can do other than keep an eye out and be careful whenever there’s a doorway or a bend in the corridor that they’ve got to pass through. The Tower bears no evidence of the mess that took place in the previous night, but none of them are surprised by that, given that the common areas of the Tower are always spotless thanks to Yen Sid’s magic brooms.

They start to relax the closer they get to the kitchen, letting their hunger speak louder than their suspicion, but that turns out to be a fatal mistake.

Half of the their group has walked into the kitchen when it happens -- _it_ being a small explosion on the wall just above the doorway that splatters a green and distressingly _slimy_ substance all over the ones that were already inside the kitchen, leaving the rest entirely unscathed as the affected group screams in surprise and disgust. But that’s not all; in fact, it gets _worse_.

There must have been a few eggs hidden inside that slime, because the kitchen and adjoining corridor are quickly filled to the brim with the smell of _rotten eggs_ , making most of them gag and recoil in an attempt to escape.

Kairi and Roxas scream for Axel’s blood simultaneously, prompting the six that had been spared to take a few steps back, just in case. Vanitas looks absolutely _murderous_ as he attempts to fling egg yolk out of his hair; Ventus, Xion and Rikuto just stand there in silence, trying to process what’s happened.

“Lea’s really gone and done it now,” Riku mutters from his place next to Sora.

“If this wasn’t a war before, it certainly is now,” Terra says in a mixture of horror and apprehension.

Sora nods somewhat dazedly. “I can’t believe we escaped yet again.”

“Yeah,” Naminé agrees, clutching her book to her chest in a tight grip.

“Tomorrow is going to be hell if they all decide to retaliate,” Aqua grimaces; her words have everyone else copying her expression.

Chirithy says nothing, still happily dangling from Sora’s arms. Sora is privately glad that Ventus hadn’t asked him to hand the Spirit back, thus saving it from getting involved in the chaos.

They jump out of the way when Kairi, Vanitas and Roxas all move out of the kitchen with the desire for blood clear in their eyes, staring at their backs with a sinking feeling in their stomachs that has nothing to do with their previous hunger.

“I’m so thankful we all live in different worlds,” Riku mutters, breathing carefully in an attempt to minimize how much of the foul smell he has to deal with.

“If only we could say the same,” Terra sighs.

Naminé nods. “If Ventus and Rikuto decide to retaliate, we’re in big trouble.”

Xion, Ventus and Rikuto pass by them next. Aqua starts to reach out for Ventus, but reconsiders it and pulls back her hand, watching in silence as the three of them head towards where the bedrooms are in a dejected manner.

Sora glances in the direction of the kitchen, quickly concluding that there’s _no way_ any of them are going to be able to eat with that mess -- and that _smell_ \-- hanging around. With this in mind, he quickly makes an executive decision, clearing his throat to get everyone’s attention.

“Riku and I have a mini-fridge in our bedroom, so why don’t we go have lunch there instead? Since we can’t really use the kitchen now, anyway.”

“That sounds lovely,” Aqua responds.

“Please,” Naminé adds, with Terra echoing her sentiment.

“That’s settled, then,” Riku nods sharply, immediately turning on his heel to walk towards the stairs -- skillfully avoiding the trail that Ventus, Xion and Rikuto have left behind.

They can deal with all of _that_ later.

 _Much_ later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School approaches~ It's certainly going to be fun to have everyone live in the same place for half the week, but this will also give everyone a chance to prank to their hearts' content, so: ups and downs.  
> The thing of Sora saying that he had been planning to ask about Chirithy during the visit to the LoD but then he forgot? **_I_** forgot. I wrote the last 2k of that chapter in such a hurry that I only remembered about it once it was already posted; I'd been meaning to talk about it a little to prove that I hadn't just forgotten its existence or something lmao it's hard to keep track of so many characters and stuff!!! I always try so hard to give everyone their fair amount of time in the spotlight (except the Disney characters.... I don't know how to handle those and so they'll just continue to be on the background) and so I end up getting a bit antsy when I haven't mentioned someone in a while.  
> This was basically the "Escalation" part of the wikipedia page on their prank war. It's not much of an inter-world prank war if there's only three people in it, after all; things at the Land of Departure are about to get Messy™️, and Roxas and Xion won't let Axel get out of it unscathed either; the only "peaceful" world is Destiny Islands, since Kairi has no prank beef with Sora and Riku. Kairi views any visitors with a borderline unhealthy dose of suspicion — more like guilty until proven innocent than the alternative.  
> Seeing Axel being hit by a prank that was supposed to hit _him_ instead makes Vanitas' entire fucking YEAR, y'all. He starts to see this new life as being worth it, because he obviously had a higher purpose that had been left unfulfilled in this past two "lives": provoke the prank wars. Be an agent of chaos itself. He's never been so glad to be alive!  
> I forgot that the training space is supposed ot be temporarily-displaced, so let's just pretend that it has stopped being so ever since Axel and Kairi finished their training. I know most of y'all didn't even think of this, but my beta did, so I gotta say this for my own peace of mind, lol.  
> We've hit 100k!!! Like I said previously, all cards are not on the table and we'll start to jump around more. I still have a fair amount of stuff that I want to do (and we still need to get Sora and Riku together!) but I'd say we've definitely passed the midpoint by now :3 I'm currently thinking it'll be about 25-ish chapters, 30 at _most_ , in case I go crazy or something.  
> Now, in a more serious manner.... I really, really hope all of you are as safe as you can be out there. The world just keeps on becoming more and more of a mess, to the point in which it feels a bit weird to be worrying about getting a chapter out in time when there's so many other, more important things to be worrying about, but that 'weird feeling' is a stupid one to have. Now, more than ever, all of us can benefit from a little moment of peace, of levity, which is something I'm more than happy to be able to provide by making sure I keep updating this fic. I'm fine, by the way; I have the very good fortune of having been able to stay at home since mid-March, and I don't live in the US, which is where the brunt of this mess is taking place.  
> Stay safe, everyone ❤️


	17. Chapter 16

Sunday morning dawns bright and clear on the Destiny Islands a week later, coaxing Sora into wakefulness despite his best attempts to cling to the sweet embrace of sleep. He keeps his eyes closed for a few more minutes as he quietly synchronizes his breathing with Riku’s, feeling his best friend’s heart beat strong and steady under his palm. Sora wouldn’t have batted an eye at doing something like that a month ago, but now, armed with the knowledge of his crush on Riku, it makes him giggle.

Riku responds to the sound by tightening his hold on Sora, shifting their already entangled legs until he eliminates all chances of Sora leaving the bed without waking him up in the process. Sora doesn’t mind it much; he _is_ , after all,a pro at lazing around in bed until noon -- a fact that Riku and Kairi keep reminding him of at every available opportunity.

Sora feels like he’s earned the right to stay in bed however long he wants after surviving the rest of the previous weekend at the Mysterious Tower, at any rate. The newly-christened Prank War had turned the Tower into a veritable _minefield_ , forcing all of them to remain ever-vigilant lest they fell prey to some prank or another.

Now that they are back on the Islands, Sora, Riku and Kairi can finally lower their guard -- which they do with a healthy dose of gratefulness, along with the painful knowledge that the rest of their friends aren’t quite so lucky.

Back then, of the six that had been hit by Axel’s prank, only Xion chose not to retaliate. Further mishaps at the Mysterious Tower had also pitted Rikuto and Ventus against Vanitas, thus sealing the Land of Departure’s fate as the fiercest battleground in this new war; one that, although rather silly, is taken as seriously by its participants as the one against Xehanort had been.

Naminé and Xion give each other and the islanders daily updates about the war’s progress in their respective worlds, keeping up a tally of how many times each of the involved parties has been hit by a prank. Sora laughs and winces in equal amounts while reading the messages, feeling quite glad that he can do so from the safety of his own, as-of-yet untainted, world.

Riku had outright forbidden him from directly participating in any pranks, arguing that if anyone came for Sora, he’d either end up as collateral damage or be forced to deal with the aftermath -- but that didn’t stop Sora from helping his friends refine their own ideas, nor from laughing when said ideas worked as intended.

Under any other circumstances, it would have been fun to plunge headfirst into the chaos, even when taking into account how nasty some of the pranks could be. Still, Sora won’t disrespect Riku’s wishes like that, and _not_ just because his best friend is in the _best possible position_ to take revenge on Sora if he did decide to join in the war. Had Riku been at one-hundred percent capacity, Sora might have taken his chances anyway, but as things stood, doing so would simply be rude.

Thinking about numbers and percentages reminds Sora of the previous day, in which they had visited Radiant Garden once again for their third check-up. Sora had been ecstatic to learn that, in these last three weeks, Riku had recovered nearly _double_ the amount of his heart that he had had in the _previous_ three weeks -- a discovery that fills him with the hope that they won’t have to wait _years_ until Riku’s heart is back to its full integrity.

Ienzo also let them know that the latest readings corroborate the idea that Sora’s healing happens at a constant rate. So long as that remains so, it means that Sora will be back to having a complete heart around the start of December -- ‘jus’ in time for them holidays!’, as Cid had joked later on.

They spent the rest of the day in the company of the Restoration Committee, talking the afternoon away even though most of them had been diligently using the gummi phone to keep in touch.

Sora is brought out of his musings by a knock on the door. He raises his head just in time to watch as Aiko pokes her head into his bedroom, smiling when she sees that he’s awake.

“Are you coming down for breakfast?” she whispers so as to not disturb Riku’s sleep.

“I’m trapped,” Sora replies with a small laugh. Aiko snorts.

“You’ve brought this onto yourself, I’m sure,” she smirks, utterly unapologetic. “Do you want me to bring you something to eat instead?”

“I’m not hungry yet,” Sora says, shrugging to the best of his ability while still in Riku’s clutches. “Maybe in a half hour?”

“Alright,” Aiko nods, stepping back and closing the door with a soft click.

Sora snuggles even closer to Riku after that, grinning to himself when Riku presses his face to Sora’s hair. The novelty of having Riku move about in his sleep after weeks of him lying utterly still hasn’t worn out quite yet; Sora unabashedly cherishes every little twitch and sleepy noise his best friend makes, taking it all as proof of how much Riku’s already progressed even if they still have a long way to go.

A bout of restless shifting from Riku lets Sora know that he’ll probably be waking up soon. Sora remains as quiet as possible during the whole process, allowing his best friend to transition into wakefulness at his own pace.

“Your hair is stabbing me again,” Riku grumbles a couple of minutes later, making no effort to move despite his complaints.

Sora laughs brightly into Riku’s chest before leaning back so as to be able to look the other in the eye. “How is that _my_ fault?” he asks, grinning amusedly. “ _You’re_ the one that insists on shoving your face in my hair!”

Riku studies him for a moment -- starting to smile despite himself -- then switches to lying on back, dragging Sora with him by their intertwined legs.

“It just is,” Riku replies at last, chuckling when Sora swats his shoulder in retaliation.

“You should accept the consequences of your own actions, Ri-ku,” Sora chides.

Riku grins. “Nah, don’t feel like it.”

“Rude,” Sora huffs.

In the ensuing silence, Sora lets his head drop to Riku’s wide chest, positioning his ear just above his best friend’s heart with a low hum. He’d try to squeeze his arms under Riku’s back to give him a proper hug, but their combined weight would probably make it uncomfortable, so he settles for bracing Riku’s torso with them instead. Riku splays his hand over Sora’s mid-back in response, prompting him to release a satisfied little noise that sounds almost embarrassingly cat-like.

He snorts when Riku reaches under the pillow for his gummi phone and comes across Sora’s instead, content to doze for a few more minutes before Riku decides it’s time for them to fully rejoin the land of the living.

“I should take a photo of you like this,” Riku says, moving the hand that had been on Sora’s back to Sora’s hair. “Physical proof of you being an octopus.”

Sora opens an eye to check if Riku actually intends to go through with that idea, but he seems to be going through his unread messages, so Sora considers it safe to close it again.

“This is on you,” he scoffs. “You’re the one who got us all tangled up like this while you were sleeping!”

“Oh, so I’m supposed to believe I did _all_ this--” Riku gestures to their legs-- “on my own? Take responsibility for your own actions, _So-ra_ ,” he parrots Sora’s earlier words with a smirk. “Besides, you could have broken free by now, but you’re still lying on top of me like a huge cat.”

“Yeah, well,” Sora sulks. “I like cuddling.”

Riku laughs. “Don’t I know _that_.”

“A-ny-way!” Sora exclaims, quickly changing the subject. “What do you wanna do today?”

Riku glances up at the ceiling for a few seconds, then towards the closed window. “I was thinking we could row out to the Play Island today,” he says, studying the few passing clouds. “Do you think the treehouse is still standing?”

“Dad told me he did some repairs on it, so it _should_ be,” Sora replies. “You wanna hang out there?”

“I think so, yeah. We’ve only gone to the Play Island lately to access the gummi ship, and that kinda feels like abandoning it, you know? I want to spend some time there just hanging out.”

“Mm, yeah, sounds good to me. Let Kairi know?”

“Sure,” Riku nods, quickly pulling up Kairi’s chat window to send her a text.

Someone knocks on the bedroom door again just as Sora is trying to find something else to say, getting the attention of both boys. Sora’s expecting it to be Aiko with the promised food, but Hoshi is the one to poke her head inside instead, smiling gently at them.

“Hey there, boys,” she says with a hint of mirth in her voice. “The two of you are sure looking cozy.”

“Mama Hoshi!” Sora grins, lifting himself up some. “I thought you had to work today?”

“One of the girls begged me to switch shifts with her unexpectedly, so now I have the day off,” Hoshi explains. “Then I decided that since I’m already free, might as well come bother Aiko and Daichi for a while,” she laughs, leaning against the doorframe.

“Don’t let them hear you say that, or else you’ll be stuck with them all day long,” Riku grins.

“Too late!” Aiko declares in a cheery tone, suddenly materializing right next to Hoshi, who makes a show of groaning in displeasure.

“We’re taking her shopping!” Daichi adds from the corridor.

This time, Hoshi’s groan is genuine. “Shopping, really?”

“We’ve been thinking about changing out some of the old kitchen appliances seeing as our son has been so kind as to bring home a small fortune,” Aiko elaborates, shooting Sora a small smile. “And since you’ve just proclaimed to be free for the day, you have automatically signed up to come with us!”

“Aiko, _c’mon_ ,” Hoshi pouts, letting her shoulders sag in an attempt to look as miserable as possible, but Aiko is unmoved.

“Nope! Our decision is final,” Aiko nods resolutely, linking arms with Hoshi despite her protests.

Hoshi sends both Sora and Riku a wordless plea for help; Aiko narrows her eyes in clear warning at them at the exact same time, prompting Sora to shake his head with a laugh.

“Sorry, Mama Hoshi, Riku and I already have plans for today!” he says. “We’re going out to the Play Island! Right, Riku?”

“Yeah, Kairi’s probably going with us too.”

“Traitors,” Hoshi hisses as Aiko starts to pull her away. “I raised you both and this is how you repay me!”

“Alright, alright, let the boys have their fun!” Aiko pats Hoshi’s arm in a condescending manner, dragging Hoshi downstairs by force.

Daichi quickly moves to fill the spot the two women had just vacated, grinning widely at Sora and Riku. “Breakfast is on the stove for whenever the two of you decide to go downstairs. We were planning to wait until later to go to the store, but it looks like Aiko has changed her mind, so I better head down before Hoshi manages to escape,” he laughs, giving the two boys a small wave before he hurries to do as he’d said.

“How long do you think Mama Hoshi’s gonna go without baking for us because of this?” Sora asks in an airy tone.

“One, maybe two weeks,” Riku grins. “We’re her little taste-testers, remember? She likes experimenting too much to last longer than that.”

Sora snorts, lacing his hands atop Riku’s chest then dropping his chin on them. “That sounds about right, yeah.”

“Yeah,” Riku says, giving Sora a small smile. “Now how about you free me from your tentacles so we can go eat, you little octopus?”

Sora narrows his eyes at the name calling before proceeding to squeeze his arms under Riku’s back, making his hold as secure as possible.

“Don’t wanna. You’ll have to carry me,” he challenges.

They spend a few seconds locked in a stare-off, but then Riku grins in a way that makes Sora narrow his eyes again -- this time in suspicion.

“Fine, then,” Riku replies, making quick work of untangling their legs.

When Riku starts to sit up, Sora has to scramble to follow the movement. It’s a little tricky, due to how he’s still trying to keep his arms around Riku’s waist, but he makes it work. Sora can see the tickling coming from miles away, which was probably Riku’s intention -- something about how anticipation can sometimes feel worse than the action itself -- so he tightens his hold in response, letting Riku’s shirt muffle most of his desperate laughter as his best friend digs his fingers into Sora’s sides.

He’s prepared to hold onto Riku come hell or high water, but when Riku moves on to his armpits instead, his reflexes betray him by making him pull his arms back. Riku smirks like the cat that caught the canary in the aftermath, ignoring Sora’s pout with the ease of practice.

Sora’s just about to lace his arms around Riku’s neck instead -- have him deal with Sora screaming right at his ear if he goes for tickling again, see how he likes _that_ \-- when Riku moves as fast as lightning, throwing Sora over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“Riku, put me down!!” Sora protests, squirming insistently in an attempt to convince the other that holding him like this is more trouble than it’s worth.

“Nope!” Riku proclaims in a cheery tone, sounding just the tiniest bit breathless. “You wanted me to carry you, so I’m carrying you.”

Sora huffs, punching Riku’s back a few times -- strong enough to let his best friend know that he _means_ it, but weak enough that it doesn’t cause any actual pain. “Not like this!”

“That’s too bad,” Riku says; Sora can all but hear the smirk in his voice as he quickly grabs their gummi phones, keeping them both in one hand. “Now stop squirming, or I’ll pinch you.”

Sora refuses to comply, pushing himself up until he’s mostly vertical while his waist is still captive of Riku’s hold, so Riku follows through with his threat, pinching Sora’s thigh and laughing at the resulting yelp.

“I hate you,” Sora hisses.

Riku pats his lower back. “You’ll have to try harder than that, buddy.”

Sora ducks his head with a grumble when they go through the doorway, settling into a slight sulk even though he knows it’ll just make Riku laugh more. It’s a bit weird to go down the stairs with such a high point of view, but it’s also not the first time that this has happened, so Sora just closes his eyes until they get to the bottom.

He perks up when he feels one of their gummi phones release a short vibration. “Was that mine?” he asks, lifting himself up a little more and trusting that Riku’s hold on him is steady enough to stop him from tumbling to the ground.

“Nah, it was mine,” Riku replies, crossing the living room with a few long strides and fiddling with their gummi phones at the same time. “Kairi says she’ll meet us at the dock after lunch. Watch your head,” he warns as they approach the doorway to the kitchen.

“Cool,” Sora hums, swinging his feet as much as he’s able.

“For all of your complaining just a minute ago, you sure seem comfortable now,” Riku snorts, giving one of Sora’s calves a squeeze.

“Might as well enjoy it,” he shrugs, tapping a beat on Riku’s back. “I can always try to get you to carry me properly again later,” he adds with a grin.

“You’re not proving me wrong here, you know.”

“Between doing that and cuddling, I’ll pick cuddling.”

“To the surprise of absolutely no one,” Riku snorts. “Mama Aiko still has photos of you fisting my shirt when we napped together as toddlers, doesn’t she?”

“I’m pretty sure she does,” Sora hums, then proceeds to voice something that has been on his mind for the past few minutes: “Hey Riku, I’m pretty close to Axel’s height like this, right? I feel like I am. It’s kinda weird to see the world from up here.”

Riku snorts, then laughs so hard he jostles Sora, forcing him to hang onto his best friend’s shoulders for dear life as his world tilts sideways dangerously. Once the instinctual fear of being dropped dissipates, however, Sora grins brilliantly, pleased to have caused such a reaction.

“How do you even _think_ of this stuff?” Riku manages to ask in between peals of laughter, sounding almost disgustingly fond. Sora doesn’t bother to hide his loopy grin, secure in the knowledge that Riku can’t see him smile like a lovesick buffoon at the moment.

“I’ll never reveal my secrets!” Sora declares in as haughty a tone as he can get to.

Riku knows as well as he does that there’s no such ‘secret’ that Sora could reveal; these thoughts just pop up inside of his brain without much prompting -- if any at all -- and Sora has never had a reason to hold them back.

Sora digs his hands into Riku’s shoulders yet again when his best friend goes to set him down by the waist, blinking a few times to adjust to the difference in perspective before he flashes his most genuine smile at Riku. They stand there with Riku’s hands on his waist and Sora’s on Riku’s upper arms for perhaps a few seconds too many, but Sora doesn’t mind -- even if the butterflies in his stomach _do_ mind it.

“You’re a dork,” Riku tells him after a long pause, stepping out of their little bubble to go check on what Sora’s parents have left them for breakfast.

Sora imagines, for a moment, what would happen if he were to walk forward and plaster himself to Riku’s back under the pretense of wanting a hug. It wouldn’t be much of a surprise to Riku, given how used he is to Sora’s antics, but Sora still waves the idea off.

Riku gives him a warning glare when he jumps to sit on the kitchen counter, but all that Sora does in response is shoot Riku an irreverent grin. He accepts the plate that Riku passes to him with a quiet word of thanks, opening one of the drawers to his left to pick up the necessary cutlery.

“I’m gonna tell Mama Aiko that you were sitting on the counter again,” Riku declares flatly, bending down slightly to study the fridge’s contents. Sora groans unhappily as he jumps off and stomps to join Riku at the dining table, well aware that the other _will_ tell on him if provoked.

He still kicks Riku’s shin in retaliation, just because he can, and Riku responds to it by pinching his arm. It takes them a couple of minutes to quiet down from that particular scuffle, since there are currently no adults around to frown in disapproval at them. Sora sulks for about ten seconds in the aftermath, glaring reproachfully at his best friend, before another thought pops up inside his mind, begging him to share it.

“Do you think we should celebrate the end of the summer or something?” he wonders, staring at the food on his plate. “I think doing something like that would be nice, since we’re all going back to school soon.”

“What, like one of those parties that the Islands’ rich kids always threw?” Riku raises an eyebrow.

Sora wrinkles his nose. “Ew, no. Just something for our friends -- like a bigger version of what we did when we spent the day at the beach with our parents. We could do it at the Play Island and invite everyone,” he explains, shrugging slightly.

“Maybe your Dad could borrow one of the bigger boats and take us all to the reef,” Riku hums appraisingly.

“Oh, yeah!” Sora grins, getting excited by the idea. “We’d show them the fish and the corals!”

“The Twilight Town gang hasn’t really been to a beach for fun before, have they?”

“I don’t think so,” Sora frowns. He turns his focus inwards, feeling as if something has been knocked loose; he analyzes it for a moment before realization dawns on him. “Oh, I think Roxas had planned to, once, but he didn’t make it?”

Riku makes a low, almost strangled noise. Sora looks at him in confusion, nudging Riku’s ankle with his foot when the other refuses to meet his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Sora asks with a note of worry in his voice.

Riku shakes his head. “I’m fine,” he says, huffing in exasperation when Sora gives him a look of clear disbelief. “Really, I mean it. That just… reminded me of something.”

Sora waits for him to elaborate, but Riku stays stubbornly silent, so he takes matters into his own hands as usual. “Yeah? What was it?”

“Roxas did have plans to do it,” Riku replies, still not looking at Sora. “Visit the beach, that is. He was going to do it with Hayner, Pence and Olette in the simulated Twilight Town, but DiZ- ah, Ansem the Wise, he wouldn’t let them, so he had me steal the munny they’d saved up for it.”

“Oh,” Sora exhales. “Was that how the King got that pouch that was identical to Olette’s?”

Riku nods shallowly. “I gave it to him.”

Sora processes this new information for a moment, letting it shine a bit more light on why Roxas dislikes Riku. He hooks one of his feet around Riku’s ankle and pulls it closer to his own body, resolute in his quest to stop Riku from retreating into himself -- be it mentally or physically.

“Still, that was-- it was DiZ’s fault, right? He was the one who made you do it,” he argues in a gentle tone. Riku shrugs with one shoulder.

“I was still the one to do it.”

“All the more reason to have a party at the Play Island, then!” Sora exclaims, undeterred. “We’ll tell him to bring Hayner, Pence and Olette too; it’s settled!”

Riku huffs once more, somewhere between vague amusement and mild exasperation. “You _really_ don’t care about the World Order, huh?”

“But it’s so boring!” Sora whines exaggeratedly, grinning when Riku chuckles in response.

He stops grinning, however, when Riku leans forward to pinch his cheeks, pulling on them none too gently.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s boring, it’s still important!” Riku insists, squeezing Sora’s cheeks a few more times before finally letting go. “We can’t go around revealing that there are other worlds out there to anyone who’d listen!”

“But why not?!” Sora pouts, rubbing his face absentmindedly.

Although the question was voiced in a downright petulant tone, it’s still an honest one. Donald always insisted that they had to be _careful_ with what they talked about around the inhabitants of any given world to protect the grand World Order, but no one had ever bothered to actually _explain_ what that meant, nor why it had to be this way.

Riku sighs, rubbing his face with both hands for a moment. Sora waits with as much patience as he can muster, pouting slightly.

“Because it makes people curious, Sora. It makes them want to see those other worlds for themselves, to _get out_ ,” Riku explains in a serious tone. He looks so haunted that Sora almost regrets asking. “What if they get lucky enough to find the door to the world’s heart, and then perhaps _desperate_ enough to open it even though they don’t know what could be waiting on the other side?”

 _Just like me_ , he doesn’t say, but Sora sees it in the tense line of his shoulders, in the depth of his frown. Sora knows that the Islands’ fall to darkness remains a sizeable weight on Riku’s conscience, but he’s always a bit surprised to see just how _heavy_ Riku has made that burden to be.

“Riku…”

“We were lucky, Sora,” Riku says, staring intently at the wooden table. “We’re lucky that everything happened so fast that the heartless didn’t really have the time to take anyone from the Islands before they fell. We’re lucky that everyone came back when the world was reformed, with no memory of what happened on that night.”

“Riku--”

“That’s why keeping the World Order is so important, Sora. So that something like that doesn’t happen again,” Riku barrels on, pretending that Sora hadn’t said anything.

The scrape of Sora’s chair against the floor makes an unpleasant noise when Sora abandons his seat to engulf his best friend in a tight hug, bending down at the waist to account for how Riku is still sitting.

“You can’t keep on thinking like that, Riku,” Sora tells him in a heated undertone. “You can’t just keep on carrying that guilt with you forever.”

Riku shrugs with only one shoulder. Sora thinks there’s something nearly challenging about that motion; an unspoken ‘ _watch me’_ that has Sora puffing his cheeks in clear disapproval.

“I don’t blame you for it, for what it’s worth,” Sora says into the junction of Riku’s neck and shoulder. “None of us really do, I’ll bet.”

Riku lets out a drawn-out sigh, slowly pushing his chair away from the table so that Sora doesn’t have to contort himself awkwardly in order to maintain the hug, which Riku _knows_ is not going to end anytime soon. Sora climbs onto his lap without ceremony; normally, he’d get at least a huff of complaint for his troubles, but this time Riku barely even grunts under Sora’s familiar weight.

“You’re _way_ too forgiving, Sora.”

“So what?” Sora scowls, holding his best friend even tighter. “Why _shouldn’t_ I forgive you for something that you obviously regret doing and that you’ve done so much to atone for? Haven’t _we_ done enough?”

Riku sighs again, forcing some of the tension out of his muscles with it. He lets his head rest against Sora’s and finally returns the embrace as well, which feels like a victory to Sora -- one that he feels proud of, no matter how small it is.

“We’ve done more than enough,” Riku whispers, close enough to Sora’s ear that he can’t quite contain the resulting shudder.

“Exactly,” he nods sagely, drawing back somewhat reluctantly to stare right into Riku’s eyes, wanting to make sure that his best friend knows just how much he means everything he’s said. “It feels like we’ve been making a lot of promises lately, but can you make me one more?”

Sora feels Riku’s shoulders tense under his hands as the other braces himself for whatever Sora’s about to request, prompting him to start rubbing comforting circles with his thumbs to calm Riku down.

“What is it?”

“Promise me you’ll try not to think like that?” Sora asks, letting some of his famous puppy-eyed expression come out in the hopes that it’d make Riku more likely to say yes -- which it usually does, about half the time. “I know it’s not something that’s easy for your mind to get rid of, but I want you to at least _try_ , okay? You could let me or Kai know whenever it starts bothering you again and we’ll set it right, yeah?”

Riku gives him a half-smile for that last part, which Sora counts as an even bigger victory.

“Alright,” Riku says, squeezing Sora’s hips just a little. “I promise.”

Sora outright beams at him; Riku lets out a low chuckle that makes Sora want to nuzzle him until he laughs more, but that’d be a little too much even for the two of them.

“We should finish eating breakfast,” Riku suggests after a few moments of comfortable silence.

Sora considers going back to his previous seat for a second, then pulls his plate closer with a teasing grin, taking a fair amount of pleasure in the way that Riku snorts at Sora’s wordless refusal to get off his lap.

“Hey, what do you think about asking Kairi to come over earlier to see if we can finally start _The Heroes of Olympus_? It’s been a few days since we finished _The Last Olympian_ and I swear that _The Lost Hero_ hasn’t stopped staring at me ever since,” Sora says, squinting at his plate as he thinks of the neat box-set sitting on his desk upstairs. 

Riku snorts again just as he’s about to take another mouthful of his breakfast, prompting him to put his fork down before they end up with food all over the floor. “Sounds good,” he replies amusedly. “But _you_ text her this time.”

Sora grins, abandoning his plate to reach for his gummi phone. “I’m on it!”

x

Sora, Riku and Kairi spend the last hours of the morning piled up on Sora’s bean bag -- which _is_ big enough to hold the three of them, thank you very much! -- with Riku sitting in the middle as they read the first few chapters of _The Lost Hero_. All three of them are fascinated by the new characters, though Sora _does_ kind of miss Percy after five books spent seeing the world through his eyes.

Aiko, Daichi and Hoshi arrive just in time for lunch. Aiko talks excitedly about the things they’d bought and the changes she plans on making around the house with the money that Sora brought home; Sora is happy to see her more willing to actually spend it, so he nods along with Daichi at her ideas while Hoshi tries her best to be the voice of reason.

Kairi stays over to eat with them, prompting Sora to take the opportunity to divulge his plans for the small party at the Play Island in the upcoming weeks. He still hasn’t let everyone else know about it, so he doesn’t have a date for it just yet, but Daichi still agrees to check with his friends if he can borrow one of the bigger boats to take them all out to the reef whenever it happens.

His parents and Mama Hoshi are ecstatic to see them going back to school. Sora had been expecting them to make more of a fuss over the idea of the three of them spending four days out of a week in another world, but they have taken the news better than expected, which is a _definite_ bonus.

Aiko makes him promise to do his best at the Disney Castle Academy about five _hundred_ times, carding her fingers through Sora’s hair with a proud smile. Daichi falls into a laughing fit when Kairi tells them that Sora and Riku are going to be in the same class again -- as much as a group of three people can be considered a class, anyway -- gleefully recounting how devastated Sora had been when Riku joined first grade and completely disregarding Sora’s groans of protest over it.

Hoshi quietly worries about school supplies until Riku tells her that they’re going to get everything they need free of charge. Aiko insists that they should chip in to cover at least the basics, but Kairi gently points out that the Queen would never accept their money for it -- at which point all three parents ask Sora, Riku and Kairi to pass along their most sincere thanks to the royal.

After lunch, the three of them set out in the direction of their small dock, carrying a bag filled to the brim with anything that they could wish for to spend a day at the beach. Their first few hours at the Play Island are spent playing in the water and running around in the sand, just like old times; once they get tired of that, they head up to the old treehouse, blow up an inflatable mattress that they’d left in there _ages_ ago and play jigsaw with their own bodies so they can all fit atop it with no limbs left out.

They talk about whatever comes to mind, watching the shadows shift about as the sun slowly moves towards the horizon. It’s so peaceful, so _comfortable_ , that it makes Sora’s chest feel like it might burst from how happy he is. So long as he has his friends and his family alongside him, he’s sure that anywhere could feel like home, but Sora can’t deny that there’s something uniquely special about this one little island, where they have spent so much of their childhood in.

Later, once the sun has fully set, they’ll row back home and find something to do for the rest of the night, but for now Sora is more than happy to let the sound of the waves and the voices of his friends lull him into a peaceful doze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: when I started writing this chapter, my plans amounted to "have Sora wake up and laze around in bed for a while, thinking about the things that have happened since we saw them last, give the parents a lil bit of screentime cause I miss them, then eventually go spend the day at the Play Island with Kairi". That was **it**. I honestly don't know why I still worry about whether I'll be able to spin my meagre plans into a full-sized chapter or not, because I always find a way to do it, usually without even really trying. It's like I have the magic of word multiplication placed on me or something.  
> Sooo, all of that dialogue just Happened. A lot of it cute, yeah, because I still am and will forever be a shameless hoe who does what she wants, but some quieter/sadder stuff too. When I was writing that part about the world order thing, I asked three of my friends if they remembered anyone actually explaining _why_ keeping the world order was so important, and they all responded with 'no', which clears some stuff up for me — mostly, that of _course_ Sora forgets it all the time, no one's ever explained it and he doesn't automatically see why it matters so much!  
> I even went on the khwiki for a bit and found no actual explanation — just that 'keeping the world order' meant keeping the existence of other worlds a secret, so I got to work on that. Riku's explanation is a valid one, if colored by his own experiences, and I don't think there's much more to it than that, other than a dash of villain-typical "I want to rule the universe!!!" kind of thing. They've decided to do things like these to protect the light, which I can understand. Sora will never respect the grand world order with the same fervor as, say, _Donald_ (who, again, never explains it and just harps on Sora for not being as careful with it) but I'd think that after this lil moment he's had with Riku, he starts to make an actual effort.  
> I'm much excite for school to start, but we gotta have a party first!! Ever wondered why the sea salt quartet never visited the Islands like the others? It's because I want to make the next chapter the first time they go there for fun! Xion, at the very least, has already visited there during 358/2 Days (I have a strong memory of that) but they've never gone there to just play around, since I've changed how exactly the final scene of KH3 happened (it didn't make any sense, anyway.)  
> Coming up on the next chapter: another long-ish time skip, and the beach party those kids deserve at last!!!


	18. Chapter 17

They schedule the party for the last Saturday before school starts, which means that the islanders have three weeks to get everything ready for it.

Sora, Riku and Kairi would have gone to Radiant Garden for the fourth time on on Saturday as usual, but they compromise on Friday because of the party, letting Ienzo know a few days in advance about their change of plans -- even though Riku would be willing to bet good munny that the man spends every single day inside that lab, so it’s not like he’d have to alter his daily schedule to account for their visit, anyway.

Riku understands why they have to do these visits, but it’s still unnerving to be the sole recipient of Ienzo’s laser-point focus whenever they come in for a check-up, especially in that spotless lab of his. Riku tries his hardest to hide how much the whole thing chafes at him, but he wouldn’t be surprised if Ienzo had already noticed it.

The fact that Ienzo only has good news to give them in that particular visit helps Riku feel better about the whole thing, though, _thankfully_. Riku’s heart had regained 3.7% of itself in the time since their last check-up -- a full percent more than it had in their previous visit, much to Sora’s enthusiasm -- leaving him just under 70%; while Sora’s healing rate had remained steady, putting him at 92.3%.

Hearing just how much of his heart was still missing makes a curl of dread squirm inside Riku’s stomach, but he rips it out before it can grow bigger, deliberately smothering it under thoughts about how far they’ve already come or how much better he already feels, even if the numbers don’t quite show it.

It takes him longer to get tired lately, and his head has lost most of that stuffed-cotton feeling that had made everything fuzzy around the edges, even after spending many hours asleep in an effort to make it go away. Now, when he wakes up, the world actually feels _clear_. Of course, not as much as it had felt before he’d given Sora over a third of his heart, but it’s still way better than how it had been just a couple of months ago.

Before they leave, Ienzo notes that Sora should be well enough now to spar without any pain or discomfort. Riku expects Sora to be ecstatic about the news, but his reaction is way more muted, though not quite enough for it to be suspicious. Riku decides to leave it be, then.

For the past few days, all that they’ve been able to talk about is the Disney Castle Academy, which is certainly funny, seeing as how most kids their age meet the idea of going back to school for the year with a healthy dose of distaste. Riku confesses that he’s excited for it as well; he _enjoys_ learning, and it’ll be nice to have a challenge to throw himself at -- one that won’t mean death or a serious injury if he fails, that is.

Sora and Riku have already made some adjustments to their schedule to account for how they’ll soon be spending most of the week at the Disney Castle, with the biggest one being switching their healing sessions to Thursday instead of Wednesday, since everyone would be free to head back to their own worlds once classes were done on Thursday afternoon.

They’ve been doing their healing after dinner ever since Aqua had stopped supervising them, anyway, so it’s not a hard decision to make. Kairi had put up some protest when _that_ change had been made -- her parents had not been too happy with the idea of her going over to the house they were sleeping in for the night so late -- but she managed to calm them down eventually. It allowed Sora and Riku to go right back to sleep after they finished their weekly healing, which in turn made things run _much_ more smoothly.

Riku will also confess that it feels a bit weird to be starting school in the middle of September -- especially since classes at the Destiny Islands High School had already started a month ago. Whenever he, Sora and Kairi walk around the Main Island during school hours, they get _dozens_ of accusatory glares from adults that either think that they’re skipping class, or outright know that the three of them weren’t even _enrolled_ in school that year in the first place.

As the weeks went by, the number of people that though they were skipping class diminished considerably, thanks to how fast gossip spread.

The three of them don’t really care about any of it. It wasn’t like the glares were anything new; they’ve been getting them ever since they returned to the Islands, and Riku would _absolutely_ bet that they’ll be getting them until the day they die.

The thought is a little morbid, as well as slightly disappointing, but it’s whatever -- they’ve fought hordes of heartless and _literal time travellers_ ; they can very well survive a bit of disapproval from people who have no idea that they’ve been saved by the same people they’re scorning, more than once, even. If Riku’s being honest, he doesn’t even particularly register their stares, more often than not -- and he knows that Sora and Kairi are in the same boat as he is.

Remembering how much the islanders like to gossip makes Riku very glad that they’re holding the party at the Play Island: far away from prying eyes, and protected further still by the bad feeling that anyone gets when they dare to approach the forgotten little island. Aside from their ragtag group of keyblade wielders, Aiko, Hoshi and Daichi are the only ones that can push through said bad feeling to reach the island’s shores.

The Play Island has always felt like it was _theirs_ \-- Sora, Riku and Kairi’s. Now, it might as well be just that. A part of Riku feels inexorably pleased about that observation, but he doesn’t pay it much mind.

They still need to iron out any last minute details for the next day’s party, after all.

x

Sora, Riku and Kairi head over to the Play Island very early on Saturday, divided up in two boats: one with Riku and Kairi, the other with Sora and all the snacks they could wish for. Their little island doesn’t have any appliances whatsoever, so they’re bringing a cooler too, filled to the brim with bottles of water and cans of soda.

After a fair amount of deliberation, Riku had talked with the King and Aqua about the possibility of allowing Hayner, Pence and Olette to come to the Islands as well, even if doing so would go against their efforts to keep the World Order. It wouldn’t be their first offense against it by _far_ , but Riku still hesitated to actually do it; as a Keyblade Master, it felt like he should be _upholding_ these rules, not breaking them.

But then again, Riku doesn’t quite _feel_ like a Master most of the time -- especially at the heels of any time spent around Aqua or Yen Sid. Aqua wasn’t much older than him if one ignored her decade in the Realm of Darkness, but she was still _leagues_ above him in many ways, which made him wonder if he should have truly received such an honorable title so soon.

That was neither here nor there, though. The King and Aqua had agreed to make an exception for them, so Riku had promptly reached out to Xion with the news. He’d also requested to keep the whole thing a secret from Sora, since he wanted it to be a small surprise for the other; Sora himself hadn’t mentioned the topic again after their talk, probably unwilling to set Riku off on a rant like that again, but Riku knew that Sora still wanted Roxas’ friends to come to their party.

All the subterfuge and tip-toeing around it for the past few weeks are well worth it, though. When the Twilight Town gang’s gummi ship lands on the far side of the island and Hayner, Pence and Olette come out -- all three of them with wide eyes and open mouths at the sight of a brand new world -- Sora grins so _brilliantly_ at Riku that he nearly has to squint his eyes. After bowling Riku head over heels with a very enthusiastic hug, Sora bounds over to greet his friends, getting a kick out of playing the gracious host.

Kairi clicks her tongue at the seven of them when she sees that _none_ of them are wearing beach-worthy clothes yet. She herds them into the old shack where the kids used to store all their toys and beach equipment so that they can change, refusing to take no for an answer. Once that’s done, she teaches everyone how to properly apply sunscreen, with Sora and Riku watching on with barely-contained amusement.

The six from the Land of Departure arrive within the hour too -- all of them already prepared for the day, courtesy of Rikuto’s island life knowledge.

Riku, Xion and Naminé had pestered the Prank Wars’ participants until they agreed to have a truce for the duration of the party with a little help from Sora and Terra. It hadn’t been easy, but they eventually got even _Vanitas_ to swear to behave for the day.

Riku would still keep an eye on him, though, just in case.

It takes Sora, Riku and Kairi about an hour to show the rest of their group how the three of them used to spend their days at the Play Island. Most of the equipment inside the old shack has fallen into disrepair after years of neglect, but they find a few sturdier floats and balls that are still usable once they do a more thorough search, so not all’s lost.

Riku isn’t exactly surprised when they discover that all of the others know how to swim. He kind of feels like he _should_ be, but he isn’t; most of them had been created from either Sora, Riku _or_ Kairi, in one way or another, and it was a fact that every islander knew how to swim before they even entered first grade -- the Nobodies as well as Rikuto had simply retained those skills, much like they didn’t have to be taught how to read or ride a bike.

Aqua and Terra had taken swimming classes as part of their training under Master Eraqus; Lea, Isa, Hayner, Pence and Olette had learned it at school in their respective homeworlds; Ventus just _knew_ how to do it, even though he had no memories of learning it, which meant that Vanitas did too.

It was convenient to the point of being funny, but everyone accepts it with a variety of shrugs. It was better than having to take the time to teach them, if one’s being honest.

It’s amusing to watch Hayner, Pence and Olette try their hardest to take it all in. A full hour after their arrival, their eyes still _shine_ with wonder; Roxas answers Pence’s many questions with a level of patience that Riku had never seen from him, which is an interesting observation to make, in a detached kind of way. Riku brushes the thought away with a wave of his hand, focusing back on Sora and Kairi instead.

Kairi leads everyone into a seashell hunt after Xion discloses her interest in the pretty little things, splitting them into groups and handing out instructions like she’s been born for it. It’s not like she’s a stranger to doing so, either way; Riku knows for a fact that she used to accompany her dad to council meetings when they were younger, there’s also the added bonus that she’s had years of hands-on practice with bossing Sora and Riku around.

Once they’ve found enough shells to satisfy Her Royal Majesty, she graciously allows them to run off on their own. Sora and Riku spend some time swimming lazy laps with Ventus and Terra, sharing stories of how it had been like to grow up on the Destiny Islands.

Eventually, one of them finds a volleyball. 

From then on, it’s chaos.

Riku has Sora and Kairi hanging off both his arms before he can even blink, looking with amusement at the two of them who were simply assuming that he'll want to play. His mirth grows as they hiss at the others, declaring quite loudly that Riku is _theirs_ , so don’t even _think_ about trying to recruit him into their team!

He’s pretty sure that the others would know not to separate them even without the theatrics, but it makes something warm bloom inside his ribcage all the same to see his best friends so protective of him. Even though he knows it’s mostly because of his height -- which is an obvious advantage that they’re not willing to let go of -- it’s still a sweet gesture.

Roxas sees Sora declare himself the leader of a team and proceeds to form his own, quickly snatching Xion, Lea and Ventus to his side. Lea is absolutely _dismayed_ when Isa accepts to join Sora’s team at Riku’s request, glaring daggers at the three of them as Isa fails to hide his smirk.

“You’re gonna _pay_ for that!” Lea snarls, pointing at each of them in turn. “All of you!!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sora waves him off with an irreverent grin, folding his hands at his nape just to rile Lea up further, exuding cocky confidence with an ease that reminds Riku of himself.

God, they’ve been spending _far_ too much time together.

Sora heads off to recruit Hayner and Olette at the same time in which Ventus goes for Terra and Aqua; he wants to snatch them from right under Roxas’ nose, especially seeing as they run the risk of having uneven teams if Roxas and Ventus manage to recruit all of their closest friends.

Naminé excuses herself from the game by offering to keep the score, which they all accept without argument. She’s the least likely to play favorites -- a definite bonus -- and Vanitas would definitely _murder_ anyone who harrassed her over the scores, so she’s truly the best choice.

Pence graciously bows out of the game as well, citing a desire to keep both teams even so as to minimize conflicts. He settles next to Naminé to watch the upcoming spectacle and quickly involves her into a discussion on a topic that Riku can’t quite discern, despite Naminé’s usual shyness.

Sora succeeds in securing Hayner and Olette for their team somehow, blowing a raspberry in Roxas’ direction when the Nobody scowls at him. Vanitas _technically_ volunteers to join Roxas’ team -- though his words make it seem like he’s doing Roxas and Ventus a _favor_ by doing so -- eyeing Kairi with the dangerous glint in his eyes that they had all grown way too familiar with during the hellish weekend spent at the Mysterious Tower a month ago.

Aqua makes a beeline to Kairi’s side once Roxas accepts Vanitas into his team. Riku takes a moment to pray that those three won’t make a scene like the one they had while playing Egyptian Ratscrew, but he has to concede that such a thing might as well be impossible. He resolves to keep an eye on them instead, nudging Sora to make sure he does the same.

Once Rikuto joins Vanitas in Roxas’ team, they’re all set. Sora’s team has the most tall people -- three, compared to Roxas’ two -- but Riku is sure that Roxas won’t let it become a disadvantage. They go through the rules one more time before Naminé announces the start of the game, huddling around the net with determined frowns and scowls.

“No magic or special abilities of any kind, no excessive use of force, no aiming for the head or torso -- this is volleyball, not dodgeball -- and even if it was that’d be way too dangerous,” Sora recites, holding the gaze of each one of them for a few seconds to make sure they’ve understood. “Also, just to be safe: Kairi, Aqua and Vanitas, if you don’t behave, you’re out!”

Kairi sniffles arrogantly, Vanitas scoffs and Aqua remains impassive. Sora waits for all three of them to nod their assent, begrudging as it may be, before pulling his team to the side to discuss strategies.

Once the game starts, time goes a bit woozy for Riku; it feels like an eternity and the blink of an eye at the same time, which is a familiar feeling to him after having fought so many battles that went by in the same way. It’s an exhilaration that he hadn’t even realized he’d been missing: the feeling of working towards a goal with single-minded focus alongside friends whom you trust to watch your back and hold down the fort when you need to catch your breath.

It’s not _exactly_ the same, obviously, but it’s close enough to make something deep down inside Riku’s chest feel sated. His teammates are still mostly taking it easy with him, ever mindful of how he isn’t at a hundred percent yet, but they don’t worry about it to the point of coddling him, which soothes fears that Riku hadn’t even _realized_ he had. He puts it into words in between points, letting the exertion clear his mind like it always does.

A part of him must have been dreading the possibility of the others treating him like glass, after all that’s happened -- after he carved out his own heart so Sora could have enough of his own to make it back to them; after all the collapsing he’s done and all the hours he’s slept.

Things have been so quiet lately, with he and Sora being automatically written out of any strenuous activities, that he hadn’t had the opportunity to put this unknown thought of his to the test yet -- until now, that is.

He would _hate_ to be handled with kid gloves, Riku admits to himself. If that had been the case, he thinks he’d probably lash out somehow; likely in a very stupid way that might have made Kairi cry again, or might have made the others disappointed in him. Sora would have held it over him until the end of time, Riku thinks, once the blinding panic ran its course.

He’s spent so many years focusing on getting stronger; on becoming someone who could protect the things that _matter_ \-- becoming someone _reliable_ \-- that being treated like he was damaged (or, god forbid, _**weak**_ ) would feel like an insult. 

He realizes it as he passes the ball to Aqua. 

It all makes sense; so much so that he’s sure that he must have known this subconsciously, way before this long chain of events led him into being able to give words to the feeling.

Sora gives him a strange look when they pause to guzzle down some water, ever perceptive of Riku’s moods, but he lets the moment pass when Riku ruffles his hair playfully and draws him into a whispered conversation about how their strategy is going.

They’re on their second game when Aiko, Daichi and Hoshi arrive with lunch, calling everyone away from the net so they may eat. Aqua and the others from the Land of Departure don’t bat an eye at their arrival, exchanging pleasantries effortlessly, but the Twilight Town gang lingers back for a moment, unsure about how to proceed in the adults’ presence.

Noticing this, Sora quickly pulls all seven of them to the front, rattling off everyone’s name with an enthusiasm that makes most of the others smile. Terra, Riku, Isa and Lea help the parents unload Daichi’s borrowed boat of all its food and appliances, heading a bit further inland to seek shelter from the overbearing sun in the shadows produced by the island’s foliage.

There aren’t nearly enough chairs for all _nineteen_ of them, so some end up sitting on the ground instead. Sora, Riku and Kairi are used to having a little bit of sand on their food -- an inevitability, really -- so they’re the first to settle down on the ground, being followed by a quiet Rikuto and a grinning Ventus before long.

The breeze rolling in from the ocean keeps everyone cool even as the sun reaches its zenith, especially since they’re all wearing swim trunks and sundresses. Riku sees Aiko pass hair ties to both Lea and Isa, who have finally grown tired of having to push their long hair away from their eyes every three seconds; the sight of the two of them with high ponytails is surprisingly amusing.

Riku notices Xion smiling at him a few minutes later. Her cheeks become a very soft pink once she realizes she’s been caught, giggling a little to offset her embarrassment as Riku smiles gently at her, shaking his head minutely to let her know that he doesn’t really mind it.

“Sorry,” she insists on saying, smoothing a hand over her dress. “I was just thinking that you and Sora really take after your parents,” she chuckles, tilting her head towards where said parents are sitting; Aiko and Hoshi seem to be in the middle of a good-natured discussion, to the amusement of everyone else.

Sora butts into the conversation with an easy grin, scooting closer to Riku in the sand so as to lean towards Xion, on Riku’s other side. “Trust us, we _know_ ,” he says earnestly, widening his grin when she chuckles. “Dad makes sure to remind us of it whenever he can.”

“The entire island, too,” Riku adds.

“It’s just really nice to see it, I suppose,” Xion smiles, her gaze drifting back to Aiko and Hoshi.

“Yeah,” Roxas butts in as well, sitting next to Xion with a huff. “You and maybe Kairi are the closest things to _parents_ that Xion and I have, which -- just _no_ ,” Roxas tells Sora, wrinkling his nose in distaste; Sora copies his expression, shuddering in disgust.

Riku tries to imagine Sora acting like a father towards Roxas and Xion, but his brain outright refuses to do it. He decides not to push, reasoning that it must be attempting to protect his sanity by doing so.

“If you let Mama Aiko and Daichi hear that, you’ll end up adopted before you can blink, so watch yourselves,” Kairi smirks teasingly, leaning onto Sora’s shoulder to join their conversation as well.

Riku wonders if _everyone_ is eavesdropping on them, just waiting for the right moment to drop in with a witty remark, and fails to contain the snort that bubbles up in his chest in response to the thought.

Sora lifts his head to make sure that his parents are out of hearing range, relaxing back into a slouch when he confirms that their attention is currently on Aqua and Terra. Aiko has the uncanny ability to appear right next to them whenever they say something like that, so Riku can’t blame him for it.

“They would,” Sora nods, digging into the sand with his toes. “They’ve already adopted Vanitas, even!”

Kairi groans in displeasure at that, scowling at nothing in particular. The four of them share grins of varying sizes, amused and exasperated in equal amounts by the ever-growing petty squabble between Kairi, Aqua and Vanitas.

“ _My_ mom has already taken Rikuto in, and I’m sure she’s trying to get Naminé too,” Riku points out with a half-smirk.

“Better pick which parent you want before they do it for you!” Sora laughs brightly, prompting Riku and Kairi to laugh at the resulting mental image as well.

Kairi launches into long descriptions of each of the three parents with the practiced enthusiasm of an experienced saleswoman, more than happy to play along with her two best friends. It doesn’t take long for her sweeping gestures and cheery tone attract the attention of the others; a few minutes later, they’re outright surrounded by their amused friends.

“Do I even want to know what this is all about?” Daichi inquires with a lopsided grin when Kairi stops to catch her breath, standing just beyond their tight circle with his hands on his hips.

“You’re doing a great job of flattering us, sweetie,” Aiko snickers. Hoshi nods her assent with a wide smile, leaning closer to whisper something to Aiko that makes both of them laugh.

“Of course!” Kairi beams, graciously wrapping up her performance before she thanks everyone for their attention with a teasing wink.

Things quiet down a bit after that as their bodies start to process their meal.

Sora, Riku and a handful of the others head towards the shore to either float serenely in the water or play around in the sand, though Sora snickers unabashedly at Lea, Roxas and Ventus’ pitiful attempts to build a sand castle before they reach the water. He does a few lazy backstrokes before he gets fed up with it and drags Riku towards the trio to teach them how it’s done, calling Kairi to help them with a slightly raised voice so as to be heard over the sound of the waves.

From the corner of his eye, Riku watches as their parents and some of their friends approach the volleyball net once more. Since Naminé is currently preoccupied with swimming laps with Xion, Pence settles down to keep the score, quickly recruiting Olette to help him out. Both Sora and Riku decide to keep an eye on the game’s progression, exchanging smug smirks when their parents leave Aqua, Terra and Isa in the dust.

Daichi herds them into his friend’s boat about an hour later, once they’ve tidied up around the island some. The islanders do a last minute check over the boat before Daichi can even ask, peering into instruments and announcing their findings with the ease of practice. Rikuto joins them in the inspection after a moment’s hesitation, adding his quiet voice to the mix and receiving a warm smile from Hoshi in exchange.

Many of their friends have never gone sailing on an ocean before, so they crowd around the sides of the boat with a mix of awe and wonder on their faces, letting out small shouts whenever they see a fish nearby or lifting a hand to play with the rushing wind. When Ventus approaches Daichi with a curious expression, Daichi begins to explain what he’s doing with a smile, happy to share his passion with someone new.

The reef isn’t too far from the Play Island, so it feels like no time at all has passed by the time they start to slow down. Daichi laughs quietly at the slightly disappointed looks some of them share, promising to take them around on a longer trip after they’ve had enough of exploring the reef, thus raising everyone’s spirits back up.

One by one, they gear up and drop to the ocean, taking a few moments to let their bodies adjust to the chilly water. Sora and Riku use this time to explain the dos and don'ts of snorkeling in the reef: keep an eye on your friends and bring them to the surface immediately if you see anything strange; _do not_ touch any of the fish or corals, for your own safety as well as the animals’; don’t be stupid, know your limits; and lastly, if you want some of the fishes to come to you, just be calm and keep still -- the brave ones will have no problem with swimming closer to check you out.

Kairi also teaches them some of the hand signs they can use to communicate underwater, giving them a quick quiz afterwards to make sure they’ve got it. Daichi describes a few of the fish they should avoid at all costs in very basic terms, adding that they should come up immediately if they think they’ve touched one, or if they feel like they’ve been stung or bitten in general.

Hoshi offers to accompany them to help with keeping an eye on the first-timers, but Sora, Riku, Kairi and Rikuto wave her off, insisting that they can handle it. If anything happens, they know to bring the afflicted person to Aiko and Hoshi immediately. Daichi had also brought Aiko’s ridiculously well-stocked first aid kit with them, and both moms were _actual medical professionals_ , so everyone would be _fine_.

They stick to the surface for some time, letting the others get a feel of their limits so as to be able to tell the signs of when they’re starting to run out of oxygen. Moreover, swimming out in the open ocean is _different_ from doing so in a pool or near the shore, so that’s something they have to take into account as well.

Riku startles when Sora scrambles to the boat, watching in confusion as his best friend exchanges a few quiet words with Aiko. He sees her sigh fondly, walk away for a couple of seconds, and then hand something to her son, who grins brilliantly before making his way back to the others.

“What did you get?” Riku asks once Sora’s settled next to him again, tilting his head a little.

“My gummi phone!” Sora exclaims, presenting the device with a proud grin. “Chip and Dale told us it was one-hundred percent waterproof, remember? I thought it’d be nice to be able to take a few pictures while we’re here!”

Riku shakes his head with a smile, sending a little wave towards Sora. “You sure you want to risk losing it?”

“I’m not gonna lose it!” Sora puffs out his cheeks, hugging the gummi phone to his chest protectively. “Don’t jinx me!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Riku laughs. “Just remember that Kairi and I won’t ever let you live it down if you drop it to the bottom of the ocean,” he smirks teasingly, ducking underwater to escape the splash that Sora sends his way.

“ _I won’t!_ ”

Once they truly start exploring, they end up scaring away every single fish in a fifty meter radius, much to the dismay of Lea, Naminé and Ventus. Riku would snort at their expressions if they were at the surface, but since they’re underwater, he settles for an amused smirk instead. When they come up for air, he and Sora explain that the fishes will come back eventually; having such a large group of people submerge all at once had just momentarily frightened them.

Lea’s long red hair attracts the attention of a handful of small curious fishes, which makes him so smug that Riku can just about _hear_ him gloat, even though the other hasn’t said a word. Sora takes a picture of it, promising to send it to Lea later.

Sora takes a _lot_ of photos, in fact -- Xion posing with an earring she’d found half-buried in the sand; Kairi sitting on a wide rock like a queen overlooking her kingdom as Olette floats serenely at her side like a sentry; Terra pretending to hold half of their group in his arms, with most of the others doing their very best to look impressed; Rikuto sporting a teasing smirk as he holds a hermit crab above Vanitas’s head, uncaring of the latter’s displeased scowl, with Naminé giggling off to the side.

Sora also drags Riku into dozens of selfies, pressing their faces together without a care for how their snorkels bump each other uncomfortably. Kairi joins them without even needing an invitation, settling next to Riku and blowing bubbles threateningly when Sora makes a show of ignoring her presence. It’s hard to do silly faces with a mask and a snorkel covering most of your face, but Sora and Kairi try anyway, clutching Riku desperately as they snicker until they’re out of breath.

Truth be told, Riku had fantasized about owning an underwater camera in the past, but they were an expense that he hadn’t been able to excuse. He had no plans of turning his trips to the reef with Daichi and Sora into a career like a handful of islanders had, no matter how amazed he was by the underwater sights and the small critters he and Sora found scurrying about.

It’s amusing, thus, that he now has one he didn’t even have to _pay_ for in his gummi phone. Though, considering the small fortune he’d acquired in his journeys at this point, Riku could buy _several_ fancy underwater cameras and still have plenty of munny left, if he so wished.

Sora _does_ eventually drop his phone to the bottom of the ocean, despite how hard he’d insisted that it wouldn’t happen. It lands on a patch of smooth sand, thankfully, so they recover it in no time at all; Riku and Kairi start teasing Sora as soon as their heads break the surface, completely ignoring Sora as the boy swears up and down that it had been Roxas’ fault for not being careful enough when handing it back.

Roxas heatedly protests this accusation, obviously, joining Riku and Kairi in playfully berating his Somebody for being careless with his things. To the surprise of absolutely no one, it culminates into a water fight, complete with Sora trying to dunk all of them and failing miserably as _they_ pull _him_ underwater instead.

Kairi wheedles Naminé, Xion and Olette into doing an impromptu photoshoot with her after that. The four girls go from silly to serious and back again at the drop of a hat, filling the space around their heads with bubbles from the laughter that they cannot contain.

When the three others get tired of it, Kairi removes her mask and snorkel to do a few more photos, letting her short red hair flow freely -- a fitting crown for their very own Princess of Heart. Ventus marvels at how long she can stay underwater unaided, and while Kairi accepts the compliment with a small laugh, she tells him that she still pales in comparison to Sora and Riku -- who might as well have lungs of _steel_.

Lea -- of _course_ it’s Lea -- has the grand idea to see if they can modify an Aero spell to give themselves air bubbles underwater, thus allowing them to explore for longer. The idea is so intriguing that even _Aqua_ joins Kairi and Ventus in trying it out, lending her considerable magic prowess to their cause.

They do the first few spells at the surface just in case anything goes wrong. Lea’s magic only works well with Fire spells, so Kairi and Aqua work on the Aero together as Ventus stands by, ready to cast a quick Cure if necessary. Everyone else floats serenely a few meters away, forming a loose circle to watch this madness unfold. Hayner, Pence and Olette appear excited to see magic being cast so close to them, and even Aiko, Hoshi and Daichi lean against the side of the boat to do the same.

The spell works well enough to prove itself as _feasible_ , but Kairi and Aqua can’t get it to last longer than fifteen seconds even with their very best attempts. Nevertheless, Lea is more than happy to play the test subject, shrugging off the list of possible consequences with an easy smirk even when Isa and Roxas threaten to abandon his corpse to the fishes if he ends up dying because of all this.

Aqua calls it off when she runs out of mana for the second time, promising to put more work into this idea once they’re back at the Land of Departure. Everyone disperses once it becomes clear that _that_ particular spectacle is over, with some of them going back to exploring the reef and others climbing back onto the boat for the day. Riku and Sora stay in the water to watch over their friends, eventually caving in to Lea’s request to show him just how long the two of them can hold their breath.

They have so much fun splashing around that Daichi’s request to come back aboard before the sun starts to set comes as a surprise. The wind had picked up while they were down at the water; Naminé shivers so violently when she climbs onto the boat that everyone can hear her teeth chattering, prompting Sora to give her his towel while he shares Riku’s instead.

Daichi starts the boat back up once they’ve all settled in, huddling beneath their fluffy towels to escape the cutting wind. Someone -- probably Roxas -- complains very loudly about how the Destiny Islands were supposed to be always _hot_ and _stifling_ , prompting a few of them to let out short laughs as Sora rushes to defend his homeland.

Riku wants to listen to the resulting discussion, truly, but now that he’s finally quieted down, exhaustion has hit him like a ton of bricks. It’s been so long since they’ve been out at the reef that Riku’s forgotten just how _tiring_ it is -- all the swimming and floating and diving. He feels fine while he’s in the water, but he always crashes down _hard_ when he finally stops for the day.

A quick glance around lets him know that he’s not the only one about to doze off; in fact, the ones looking alert are the minority. Hayner, Pence and Olette are napping together in a corner; Xion doesn’t look far off from following them, even though the rest of her quartet are wide awake; Naminé had fallen asleep as soon as her teeth stopped chattering, with Rikuto blinking sleepily at her side, and even _Vanitas_ looks softer around the edges on Rikuto’s other side; Ventus is fighting to stay awake but losing miserably, squished between Aqua and Terra; and, to finish it off, Riku feels Kairi’s head come to rest on his shoulder as she, too, loses the battle against sleep.

Sora stops moving around so much when he realizes that Riku has gone completely still, abandoning his argument with Roxas to shoot Riku a small smile. He shifts in place until he can put an arm over Riku’s shoulders, using their new position to pat Kairi’s head as well.

“I’ll wake you guys up when the sun starts to set,” Sora whispers, absentmindedly wringing a few drops of water out of Riku’s hair. Riku nods against his shoulder, rearranging his long legs to find a more comfortable position that will still allow him to remain fully covered by the towel.

He dozes on and off for the next few minutes, lulled by the boat’s gentle movement, the sound of the motor and Sora’s voice. So many days of his childhood and early teenage years were spent just like this -- days in which Daichi had permitted the two of them to accompany him to his daily fishing trip, waking them up before sunrise and letting them get a few more hours of shut-eye on the boat as he fished. On those days, he’d take them to the reef in the afternoon, as a reward for being good little assistants after they woke up.

Riku thinks that his own dad, Hotaru, had gone with them on those trips as well before illness took him back to the sea, as the old islanders usually called it. He has very faint memories of singing along to a guitar’s melody with his high and childish voice as Sora did his best to match Riku’s tone.

Sora wakes him and Kairi up for the sunset as promised, then goes one step further and wakes _everyone_ up -- brushing off their sleepy protests as he insisted that they _had_ to see the sunset out here in the open ocean, or else he wouldn’t be their friend anymore.

After another handful of mumbled protests, everyone huddles together at the front of the boat to watch the sun start to dip below the horizon. Yawns spread to the rest of the group before the first offender can even finish their own, making most of them let out sleepy chuckles and giggles. Once the sun is officially out of sight, Daichi sets course back to the Play Island, telling them all to catch some more sleep in the meantime.

The visitors make their way towards their gummi ships after thanking the islanders for planning this party as well as praising Sora and Riku’s parents for the lovely food, while also exchanging a few words of excitement about how the school is going to be like, come Monday. Sora makes sure to hug everyone who’ll accept it, laughing in delight as even Rikuto lets himself be hugged. The six of them watch in comfortable silence as the gummi ships take off, flying up and away, towards the Land of Departure and Twilight Town.

“So, how does it feel to have planned a successful party?” Aiko asks Sora, pulling him to her side with a grin.

“Amazing,” Sora beams, leaning heavily against his mother. “It was so much fun!”

“That’s great, honey,” Hoshi says earnestly, sidling up to Riku and Kairi. “Ready to go back home? All three of you are literally _drooping_ ,” she hides her chuckle with a hand.

“We’ll get your boats back to the Main Island tomorrow,” Daichi adds. “Did you forget anything?”

“I’ll go get it,” Kairi volunteers, rubbing her eyes.

“Nonsense, sweetie, you’re almost asleep!” Aiko chides her, letting go of Sora to put her hands on her hips. “Just tell me where you left it and I’ll get it for you.”

Once their missing bag has been collected, Daichi sets out to the Main Island. He delivers Kairi to her house while Sora and Riku are led by their moms to Hoshi’s house; Aiko shoos Riku, then Sora into the bathroom to shower off the saltwater and sand, telling them that she and Hoshi will leave some dinner out for them to eat whenever they finally wake up.

Riku falls asleep as soon as he gets horizontal on his bed, leaving Sora to pull the covers over them as he starts to dream of running across the Sleeping Traverse Town, with Sora joining him before his eyes are even fully closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was kinda weird to have a chapter with so little dialogue considering how much of it I usually do, but doing it like this was better than having to figure out how to have nineteen mcfucking people all talk at the same time!!! Riku's healing is speeding up and will continue to do so for a little while :3  
> If you pay attention to details, you might have noticed that I have refered to an actual month in this chapter — it's because I figured out actual dates for this fic!! I had resisted doing so because goooooooddddddddddd, doing that/keeping track of stuff like that is a PAIN but >_> I realized that I could do something perfectly if I put in the effort, so... here's that effort, lmao.  
> It's looking more and more like this fic will have about 25 chapters, maybe two-ish more _at most_. I'm planning on doing a small epilogue, too! So long as I can manage to keep the posting schedule, that'd mean that the fic would be done in August, probably, with about 170~180k words, I'd say. (saying all this makes it seem so close, but so far away at the same time. it's weird.)  
> I swear to god, Riku just keeps on pulling those more thoughtful/borderline angsty moments on me with zero fucking warning. I was writing that part, setting everything up for the game, and then he just goes 'hey I have some Thoughts [drops a pile of character analysis directly atop my head] figure it out' and I'm left here like 'COME BACK HERE AND ANSWER FOR YOUR ACTIONS!!!'  
> God, I wish that referring to Aqua, Terra and Ventus in-fic as 'the Wayfinders' didn't feel so weird. Sometimes I want to mean just the three of them and no one else, but I end up having to type out their names >_>   
> Aiko and Hoshi never really wished for big families, but now they have one, whether they like it or not >:3c I thoroughly amused myself with the mental image of Kairi blowing bubbles _threateningly_ , by the way, and reading it still makes me giggle.  
> Biiiiiiiiiiiiig thanks to CalicoColors for lending me her snorkeling knowledge for this chapter ❤️ Couldn't have done it without you!! >;3c  
> Next chapter: school finally begins!!!


	19. Chapter 18

Aiko, Daichi and Hoshi see the three of them off on Monday morning, accompanying them to the dock to say their goodbyes and give their well-wishes. Hoshi’s last minute fussing over them makes them laugh a bit, but they bear it with grace, allowing her to smooth over the creases on their clothing and rattle off checklists to make absolutely sure they have everything they need.

Given that the Academy itself will provide the necessary school supplies, there’s not much they need to take with them other than a few changes of clothes and some ways to keep themselves entertained in their downtime. Riku is sure that their bags won’t be quite as light when they return home on Thursday, depending on how much homework they get, so he makes sure to enjoy his bag’s minimal weight while he can.

Riku expected their parents to be more reluctant to send their kids off to study in a school settled in a whole other _world_ , considering how long Sora and Riku -- and Kairi, to a lesser extent -- had spent gallivanting across the universe while utterly uncommunicable by now; but they look nearly as excited as Riku himself is about the whole thing, which is a relief.

 _Maybe we did a better job of reassuring them than I thought,_ Riku thinks with a quiet snort.

“Have you guys ever been to the Disney Castle?” Sora asks as he and Riku row their lone and rather overfilled boat towards the Play Island.

“Nope,” Riku replies while Kairi shakes her head.

“It’s so big!” Sora tells them in a voice filled with awe. Riku’s sure that if Sora hadn’t been busy rowing, he would be gesturing wildly, as is his usual. “Like, really, really big! A giant could probably walk around there with no problem!”

“Do you think they _have_ any giants?” Kairi taps her chin.

“Donald and the King are so short, though, why would they need such a big castle?” Riku frowns, meeting Kairi’s thoughtful gaze.

“Maybe it’s just for show,” Kairi suggests, hugging all three of their bags to her chest protectively.

“I didn’t see any giants while I was there, but who knows,” Sora shrugs slightly. “Plus, the doors didn’t open, like, _all_ the way. They were huge too, but only a normal people sized section of it opened to let us through.”

Kairi laughs brilliantly as an idea occurs to her, prompting Sora and Riku to exchange amused glances as she gets it out of her system.

“Wouldn’t it be _hilarious_ if the doors were too short to let Axel through without bending down?” she huffs once she’s caught her breath, still grinning wide. Sora joins her when she cracks up again, momentarily throwing off their rowing rhythm.

“Like we need any more proof of him being an alien of some sort,” Riku smirks; Sora and Kairi laugh even harder.

“Oh man, that’d be too good!!” Kairi exclaims amidst her giggles.

Sora continues to talk about the Disney Castle as they tie their boat to the Play Island’s dock and cover it with a tarp, doing his best to describe some of the intricate topiaries he’d seen in the Castle’s gardens, as well as just _how_ plush the carpets lining the corridors had been under his feet.

Sora is the one to take the helm of the _Highwind_ as always, keeping up a constant stream of conversation as he dodges asteroids and destroys stray heartless ships. Riku and Kairi barely bat an eye at all this, allowing their best friend to talk his heart out with fond smiles.

“How do you guys think this first week will go?” Sora asks after a moment of silence, sounding somewhat hesitant. Riku can see his hands tighten their hold on the helm.

“Well, they still need to test us to see what exactly we’re missing, don’t they?” Kairi replies, leaning forward to place a comforting hand on Sora’s shoulder. “The first week will probably be devoted to that.”

Sora lets out a long groan at the mention of tests, making both Riku and Kairi chuckle, which in turn makes him smile again.

“Now that’s the one thing I _don’t_ miss about school,” Sora huffs out a laugh.

“So there _is_ something you miss about it?” Riku fires back immediately, wearing a teasing smirk.

“I mean, I guess?” Sora tilts his head, staring unseeing at the viewscreen for a second. “Having a routine was nice, though I’m _also_ not looking forward to having to wake up so early every day again,” he shrugs.

“That’s going to suck at first, for sure,” Kairi sighs. “We haven’t had to follow a schedule for _months_ now.”

“We’ve already saved the universe more than once; we can adapt to having a schedule again,” Riku says somewhat encouragingly.

“Yeah!” Kairi nods enthusiastically, grinning at Sora until he grins as well.

“Hell yeah!” he returns with about twice as much enthusiasm.

With that little exchange over with, Sora turns to face the viewscreen again, his fingers tapping a cheery beat on the controls. When Disney Town finally comes into sight, his feet join the beat as well, which has Riku attempting to hide an amused snort.

He leads their ship into the garage with practiced motions, getting more and more restless the closer they get to the ship dock itself. He lets out a small shout when they pass by Aqua’s gummi ship, but they don’t see Roxas’ anywhere, so the Twilight Town quartet must be on their way still.

Chip and Dale guide Sora through the docking maneuvers via the intercom, letting them know that Queen Minnie is waiting at the Castle’s gardens for them, together with Donald, Goofy and the group from the Land of Departure.

Sora jumps out of the pilot seat before the engines have fully finished turning off, grinning unapologetically at Riku when he chides Sora for the action. He grabs all three of their bags from where they had been left -- behind his seat -- and ushers them out impatiently, insisting that Chip and Dale are more than capable of handling the ship in their absence.

“Come _on_ , guys, we gotta meet up with the others!” he whines when Riku and Kairi lag behind. He doesn’t stomp his foot like a kid in the middle of a tantrum, but Riku would bet that it’s a near thing.

Sora waves like a madman at Aqua and the others once they finally enter the gardens, pausing to give a brief bow to the Queen before jumping onto Donald and Goofy with a gleeful shout -- or having Donald and Goofy jump on him, Riku can’t really tell. All he knows is that all three of them end up tangled together and screaming on the grass in the span of a blink.

The Queen muffles her giggle at the sight with a gloved hand, leaving the three friends to their frenzied reunion as she turns to face Riku and Kairi instead.

“Your Majesty,” Riku greets her, bowing at the waist. Kairi copies the motion.

“Thank you for doing this for us, Your Majesty,” she smiles.

“Please, it was the least I could do in return for all that you’ve done to keep the Realm of Light safe,” Minnie smiles warmly.

Aqua steps forward. “You don’t have to repay us for that, Queen Minnie,” she interjects, more as a token protest than an actual wish to argue against the diminutive royal.

“I am aware of that, but being able to do this at all makes me happy,” Minnie shakes her head.

“In that case, we’re more than happy to be here!” Ventus exclaims with a grin.

A disgruntled grumble from a few meters away draws Riku’s attention to Vanitas, who looks even more murderous than usual. He vaguely remembers overhearing Ventus say that Vanitas might as well be a nocturnal creature with the hours he keeps, which would explain the boy’s extra grumpiness, as well as the deep bags under his eyes.

“There are four of you still to arrive, is that not right?” Minnie asks, waiting for their nod of confirmation before she continues. “Orientation should start in about an hour and a half, but I had planned to show you to your rooms first…”

“With all due respect, Your Majesty, if those four still haven’t arrived, it’s pretty likely that they’ll be late,” Kairi huffs, putting a hand on her hip. “Axel has a talent for being late, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s running around trying to finish packing his bag right about now.”

The Queen has to stifle another round of giggles at that, looking up at Kairi with an amused twinkle in her eyes once she’s got it under control again.

“If that’s the case, I’ll leave someone here to greet them and start the tour with the rest of you,” she decides, tapping Goofy’s shoulder to get his attention before asking him to fetch a guard from the gates to do just that.

Sora accepts the hand that Riku offers him with a sheepish grin, allowing Riku to pull him to his feet. He brushes off the blades of grass that have gotten stuck on his clothes before turning to the Queen to make pleasant small talk, listening attentively when she speaks and talking animatedly when she asks him a question or another.

Riku takes the chance to greet the others properly as they wait for the guard to arrive, chuckling along with Aqua and Terra as Ventus begins to rant excitedly about his expectations regarding the Academy’s classes.

When the guard arrives at last, the Queen gives him instructions to have Lea, Roxas, Xion and Isa meet with them at the student’s dormitory if the four arrive within the hour, and to lead them directly to the hall where orientation is taking place if they arrive any later.

With that taken care of, Minnie, Donald and Goofy start their tour of the Castle grounds, pointing out areas of relevance as they make their way to the dormitories. Riku finds that Sora _really_ wasn’t kidding about the size of the rooms and halls they pass through; a giant would _definitely_ be right at home in these corridors.

“We’ve arrived,” Minnie tells them upon crossing over a wide doorway, gesturing broadly at the spacious corridor they find themselves in. “I took the liberty of asking for double rooms to be arranged for you all -- I hope that won’t be a problem? There’s a triple room as well, since we’d have an odd one out otherwise; and the last door in this hall leads to a common area that you may use however you wish to during your stay.”

“Double rooms are fine, Your Majesty, thank you,” Aqua nods, letting her genuine appreciation color her tone.

“How are we going to split up?” Ventus asks, glancing at Terra and Aqua.

“Well, Riku and I are obviously sharing one,” Sora declares loudly, grinning as he laces his arm with Riku’s. “Kairi, you could take the triple with Xion and Naminé,” he suggests.

Kairi glances at Naminé for confirmation, smiling at the nod her Nobody gives her. “We’ll do that, then,” she says, adjusting her grip on her bag.

“Ven, why don’t you share with Roxas? I can room with Terra,” Aqua smiles.

Vanitas noisily clears his throat, drawing the attention of most of the group to where he’s still lurking at the back of their entourage. He then proceeds to push past everyone else, making a beeline to the doors and throwing all of them open to peer inside with a judgemental scowl.

Donald protests quite loudly at all this, ordering Vanitas to be more respectful and show some actual _gratitude_ to the Queen, but Vanitas ignores his entire existence effortlessly -- which only serves to make Donald even angrier, of course.

“Rikuto, come on!” Vanitas calls once he’s found a room that meets his standards. Rikuto huffs exasperatedly at the demand for his presence, but the small smile that graces his face belies his amusement at his friend’s mannerisms.

Minnie puts a hand on Donald’s shoulder, forcing the duck to stop fuming with a gracious smile. “That’s quite alright, Donald,” she says reassuringly, hiding a chuckle when he slumps in defeat. “The rest of you should start getting settled in as well; Goofy, could you stay here to take them to the study area once it’s time?”

Goofy salutes her with a serious expression. “That’ll be no problem, Queen Minnie!”

“Thank you,” Minnie smiles. “I’m afraid I must return to my duties, so we’ll have to cut this short, but Mickey and I will join you for lunch later on, if that’s alright. Donald, would you escort me back to my study?”

“Of course,” Donald squawks, bidding Sora and the others a quick good-bye before following the Queen through the doorway again.

“Let’s pick our rooms, then!” Sora exclaims, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he beams.

Kairi nods. “Gotta find that triple,” she hums, breaking apart from the group to look through the doors Vanitas had left open.

“Lea and Isa will get the last room, right?” Ventus taps his chin.

“That’s right,” Terra says.

“We gotta leave them the worst room!” Kairi calls out from further down the corridor, making Sora, Ventus and Goofy laugh.

“C’mon, Riku, or else we’ll get left behind too!” Sora grins, pulling Riku forward by the wrist as he’s grown accustomed to doing.

“Sure, sure,” Riku smirks wryly.

Sora stakes his claim on a room with baby-blue walls, shooing Ventus away with a chuckle when the boy comes around to ask them if they want to switch with him and Roxas. It’s an incredibly ornate room; Riku wonders if all guest rooms in the castle are like this, or if this is just the Queen making sure that they get only the best during their stay.

He snorts when Sora throws himself face first onto one of the two beds in the room, letting it morph into an actual laugh when his best friend groans in appreciation of the quality of the mattress.

“Riku, you _gotta_ check this out, it’s like I’m lying on an actual cloud,” he mutters reverently, shifting upwards until only his feet are hanging out of the bed.

“We don’t have time for you to take a nap,” Riku reminds him amusedly, dropping his bag near the foot of the bed before he takes a seat next to Sora, who is doing his best impression of a starfish.

Sora is right, though; the bed _does_ make him feel like a little piece of heaven had been plucked out of the sky to serve as their mattress. Sora snorts into the plush covers when Riku lets himself fall backwards with a blissful sigh, turning his head towards Riku and allowing him to see his insufferable smirk.

“Told you so,” Sora singsongs, like the imp that he is.

“Still not enough time for a nap,” Riku repeats, though now his voice has a hint of regret in it that he can’t quite suppress.

“Yeah, but we’ll be sleeping on these part-time for the next few years, so we still got it pretty good!” Sora laughs. “Do you think the Queen would let us take one of these mattresses with us when we finish our schooling? Or maybe she could point us to where they were bought…”

“Considering the fact that we’re talking about royalty, it’s probably custom-made,” Riku hums. “So maybe their artisan instead?”

“I have never been happier to have royal friends,” Sora snorts, pressing his face a little deeper into the covers. Riku copies the sound, staring out at the canopy -- their beds have _canopies!!!_ \-- above their heads.

“This room probably is worth more than our entire houses.”

“Worth more than both of them _together_ ,” Sora nods solemnly.

“If we could put a price on the entirety of the Main Island, this Castle would still be worth more, I think.”

“That wouldn’t surprise me, honestly.”

“This is insane,” Riku laughs, reaching out to grab a pillow from the pile that had been left near the headrest. “Why would anyone need so many _pillows_? This isn’t even a double bed!”

“But they’re comfy,” Sora argues, snatching the pillow away from Riku’s hands. “Good for hugging,” he adds. “Oh! We could do nests, too, or blanket forts! We’ll have to see how big the common room is -- we could build a huge pillow fort there one day! Oh, ooh! Maybe even have a sleepover with everyone!”

Riku groans. “We haven’t been here for even two hours, Sora, slow down with the grand ideas.”

Sora whacks him with the pillow in retaliation, prompting Riku to steal it back before Sora can get it into his head to start a pillow fight. Sora sticks his tongue out at him for it, then throws _himself_ at Riku’s chest instead, smirking in self-satisfaction at the little ‘ _oof_ ’ Riku lets out.

“You’re heavy,” Riku deadpans.

“Am not,” Sora replies immediately, because he _isn’t_. Even with all the muscle he’s gotten while fighting for his life for two years, he’s still lean and compact, unlike Riku. “I think I saw a door when I was looking over the room -- you think it’s a bathroom?”

“Should be,” Riku replies. “Can you _imagine_ having to share a bathroom with the others? That’d be hell.”

Sora snorts into his jacket. “Didn’t Kairi complain about how long Axel spent in the bathroom getting ready once? I kinda remember her doing that.”

“He’d be dead within the week, then, if not sooner,” Riku smirks.

“If Kairi didn’t get him, Roxas would,” Sora nods. He rolls off of Riku and jumps to his feet with a regretful sigh, staring forlornly at the bed. “We should take a look at the bathroom and then start figuring out where to put our stuff.”

“ _You_ , taking the initiative to unpack our bags?” Riku teases with raised eyebrows, sitting up as well. “I think hell has finally frozen over.”

Sora puffs out his cheeks and crosses his arms, petulance evident in every line of his body. “If you’re going to be like that, I’m not gonna help!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Riku laughs, pulling Sora into an one-armed hug as he stands up. “Couldn’t resist. Bathroom first, then unpacking after that, yeah?”

“Sounds good,” Sora smiles.

Their bathroom is about the size of Sora’s room back home, which shouldn’t be surprising by this point, but their jaws still drop once they open the door. By Riku’s estimates, the tub alone could fit about five people in it comfortably -- more if they didn’t mind squeezing in -- and it was also lined with more varieties of soap and hair products than they’d ever know how to deal with; Sora spends a solid five minutes just sniffing all of the bottles and shoving the ones he likes under Riku’s nose as well.

Back in the bedroom, they find two ornate dressers with more empty space than they could _ever_ hope to fill, so Sora suggests that they share one instead. They split it right down the middle with an imaginary line so that Riku gets the left side and Sora the right; Riku is sure that Sora’s stuff will start to encroach on his territory as the weeks go by, but they’ll cross that bridge when they get to it. For now, the divide works well enough.

They’ve just started to fill out the top drawers when Terra knocks on their door to let them know it’s time to go. Sora pushes his bag into the large space above the drawers with a grin, wheedling Riku until he does the same as Terra smiles at them from the doorway.

“Roxas and the others still haven’t arrived?” Sora inquires as he looks at the group that’s already gathered around Goofy.

“They might have already, but they were probably taken to the study area right away,” Terra explains.

Kairi smiles when she sees them, lacing arms with both Sora and Riku once they’re close enough. “Ready for our school year to finally officially begin?” she asks, looking at them in turns, her smile shaping into a grin. “Now that we’re getting so close to it, I’m starting to get anxious!”

“Me too,” Naminé smiles nervously.

“I’m _ready_!!” Sora exclaims excitedly, lifting the arm that is not laced with Kairi’s as high as it can go, showing no sign whatsoever of the hesitation he’d felt back at the gummi ship.

“Ahyuk, that’s the spirit, Sora!” Goofy nods approvingly.

“Save some of that enthusiasm for the classes themselves, though,” Riku remarks with a half-smirk. Sora blows a raspberry in his direction, which has Kairi leaning back to avoid the occasional droplet of spit with a fond, but still disgusted, chuckle.

They meet up with the missing quartet right before arriving at the wide hall in which orientation is going to take place. Roxas has absolutely no compunctions in pining the entirety of the blame for their lateness on Lea, who at least seems genuinely apologetic about it to some degree.

Ventus and Kairi fill them in on what’s happened so far as they walk towards the seats that have been set out for them, smiling politely at the handful of individuals that are standing near a podium a few meters away -- their new teachers, Riku guesses.

After everyone has taken a seat and quieted down, one of the teachers steps forward with a reassuring smile to start explaining all the details of how the Disney Castle Academy will work -- how many classes they’ll have per week, how long each one of them will be, who will be teaching them, and so on.

Riku forces himself to devote his full attention to the speaker, both because he is honestly looking forward to all of this, and also because he wants to make a good first impression after all the work the Queen had put into this.

The rest of the morning passes in a blur, but Riku finds that he doesn’t really mind it.

x

They have lunch at the main dining hall with Mickey and Minnie as promised. Mickey had wanted to use his private dining room, but the table hadn’t been big enough for all seventeen of them, so they ended up at a table that could easily seat a hundred people instead.

Vanitas sits as far away from the rest of them as he can without being _too_ insulting, using Rikuto and Naminé as a buffer between him and the others. Sora ponders on this for a moment, then figures that even _Vanitas_ must be hesitant to learn the consequences of offending royalty, which is a thought that makes him snicker into his cup. He earns a questioning look from Riku and Kairi for it, but they let it drop almost immediately, too used to his silliness.

Once most of them have finished eating, Mickey brings up the possibility of having Aqua and Terra take more of a teaching role in some of the classes, if not lead one of their own, since there’s no one in Disney Town that could teach Keyblade History to the others; he also reasons that it would also be good practice for when they have their own school.

Aqua and Terra are suitably intrigued by the proposal, sharing considering glances over Ventus’ head. It would probably take them a few weeks to prepare for it, since they hadn’t thought of it before, but both of them accept the challenge after thinking about it for a moment; Sora swears he can see the gears inside their heads turn furiously.

A part of him keeps waiting to see smoke coming out of their ears, but as amusing as that would have been, it sadly doesn’t happen.

After lunch, the students are led back to the dorms’ area, seeing as classes won’t start back up for another hour. Sora decides to explore the common room that the Queen had told them about instead of going back to unpack, pulling Riku towards it by the wrist and grinning unapologetically at the knowing huff that his best friend lets out.

Sora braces himself for how big the room must be, he truly does, but he _still_ ends up gaping like a fish at the gargantuan sight of it after opening the door either way. He can’t even begin to decide what to focus on; there’s a small kitchen nestled in the far corner, dotted with cabinets that Sora would bet are filled to the _brim_ with food, even though the Queen had assured them that the main kitchen would be providing most of their meals; there’s also an entertainment corner, with the biggest TV Sora has _ever_ seen as well as about half a dozen game consoles, surrounded by sofas, loveseats and floor cushions.

“How are we supposed to focus on studying when we’ve got all _this_?” he asks in a voice tinged with equal parts wonder and despair, making a broad gesture towards the TV stand.

Riku shifts his stance and tilts his head a bit to the side, looking like he’s _actually_ thinking about Sora’s question. This sight makes about three dozen warm and fuzzy feelings blink into existence inside Sora’s chest, so he casts his gaze elsewhere before they can start using his ribs as a ladder to reach his throat and beg to be given voice.

“Well, maybe we can use it as a bribe? Like, make a deal with ourselves that we can only use all this if we’ve finished our homework for the day or something,” Riku says, but Sora isn’t really listening anymore -- his desperate search for something to distract himself from how unbearably _adorable_ his best friend was had been successful.

“Riku, Riku, look!” Sora whispers urgently for absolutely no reason, earning himself a half amused, half exasperated shake of the head from Riku as Sora yet again drags him by the hand to what had caught his attention.

The small cabinets under the massive TV were covered by glass instead of solid wood, which had allowed Sora a glimpse of a familiar logo -- a logo that belonged to his favorite video games series as a child, to be precise -- so he _had_ to investigate.

He’s nearly trembling with excitement by the time they reach the cabinet, letting out a wordless shout of joy when he confirms that it is, indeed, the game that he’d been hoping for, prompting Riku to chuckle under his breath.

“Riku! Riku, oh my god, Golden Sun has another sequel!” Sora yells a few seconds later, torn between staring at the game case in awe and reaching over to take Riku by the shoulders and shake him until he understands exactly how Sora is feeling right now.

In the end, he does both. Riku takes the abuse with a heavy dose of amusement, laughing heartily as Sora devolves into a long rant that Riku has probably heard about a dozen times over the years. He also keeps Sora from stepping onto the cases that had spilled out of the cabinet when he stands up to walk some of his nervous energy off, eventually picking up a handful of games himself to see if any catches his eye.

Sora would love nothing more than to boot up the game _right now_ and play until his eyes burn out of his skull with exhaustion, but he had _promised_ his parents, Mama Hoshi and Riku that he’d do his very best at the Disney Castle Academy, so he can’t just skip class on the very first day -- especially not for a _game_ , of all things. Not to mention that he’d have to convince Riku to skip with him, too, which further seals Sora’s fate.

He drops onto one of the cushions scattered across the floor and promptly crosses both his arms and his legs with a pout that only grows more pathetic the longer Riku’s laughter lasts.

His best friend scoots closer with a grin, pulling Sora closer to him with an arm around his shoulders. “Our classes for the day will be over sooner than you think, Sora -- you’ll be able to play it in no time!” Riku says encouragingly, though he can’t quite hide the note of amusement present in his tone.

“I _know_ ,” Sora groans, leaning into Riku’s warmth gratefully. “But we’ll probably hang out with everyone when we come back from the afternoon classes, then we’ll have dinner and hang out more, then we’ll be too tired because we woke up so early and then there are more classes tomorrow!” he whines, feeling Riku nod near his head. “Not that I don’t like spending time with everyone, I love it, but I want to plaaaay!”

“We have the console for it at home, don’t we?”

Sora glances at the game case again for confirmation. “Yeah, in your house -- it’s that new one we bought a few weeks ago.”

“So let’s just take it with us for the weekend,” Riku shrugs. “I’ll have my bed and you’ll have the chance of being scolded by my mom when she wakes up to go to the bathroom and sees that you’re still awake because of the light coming out from under the door,” he smirks teasingly, receiving a jab to the ribs.

“I wouldn’t stay up _that_ late!” Sora scowls, then looks away, muttering under his breath, “probably.”

“You _absolutely_ would,” Riku fires back with _way_ too much conviction for Sora’s liking. “Mom would tell Mama Aiko and then you’d get scolded _twice_ , too.”

“Shut uuuup,” Sora whines, pushing himself away from Riku when his best friend starts laughing again.

He’s expecting Riku to continue his teasing, but it seems like he’s had his fill for the moment, so the two of them start going over the games in the cabinet in a more methodical way, sorting them out into piles according to how interesting they find them. When Roxas pokes his head into the room, Sora calls him over by frantically waving his hands, shoving about ten games that Sora thinks he’ll like into his Nobody’s arms as soon as he gets close enough.

Vanitas walks in, sees them, then proceeds to spin on his heel to walk back out, but Sora convinces him to stay by tempting Rikuto -- who had been about to enter the common room himself -- with a game that he and Riku had played back on the Islands, raising it above his head when Rikuto peeks into the room with interest.

Roxas teases Sora by saying that he’s trying to start a video game cult, so Sora whacks him with one of the floor cushions. Knowing that Roxas would see such a thing as an explicit declaration of war, Sora stands up to run away from him with some line about how Roxas can’t catch him on the tip of his tongue, but he stops short upon realizing that he has no way of convincing Riku to run with him (and they’d probably get hopelessly lost if they left the room, anyway) so he ends up meeting his Nobody’s challenge head on, instead.

All things considered, it’s really not a surprise that about half of the enormous room has been thrown into disarrayby the time a guard arrives to escort them back to the study area. In hindsight, being careless enough to hit Vanitas with a stray pillow had _not_ been their best moment, but alas, there was nothing they could do about it now.

Sora doesn’t mind it much, to be honest. According to the schedule that had been given to them that morning, Monday and Tuesday afternoons were reserved for the few classes that Aqua, Terra, Axel and Isa had enrolled in; something about not taking up too much of the adults’ time so that they could go back home earlier in the week in case they needed to take care of stuff in their own worlds. Sora had kind of stopped listening as soon as it became clear that it didn’t concern him; his head was already spinning with too much new information, thank you very much.

He tries to pay more attention to the path they’re taking this time around, since it’d be kind of inconvenient to need a guide every time they wanted to go somewhere, but he’s forced to give it up as a work in progress sometime after the sixth turn they take.

Riku appears to be having more luck memorizing the twists and turns they’re taking, if the small crease between his eyebrows is anything to go by. Sora isn’t surprised; Riku has always been the best navigator out of their little trio. Later, Sora can ask him what parts of their way were giving him trouble and endeavour to fill in the gaps in his mental map.

The rooms that have been set aside to hold their classes all lie close to the Castle’s library, which Queen Minnie had assured them that they were free to use at any hour of the day or night, if they had the need of a quiet place to study. Now that Sora knew of the temptations waiting for him back at their shared living area, he was forced to admit that Riku’s idea of them doing their homework at the library was probably for the best.

Their first real class for the day is on _etiquette_ , of all things; Sora’s bracing himself to hate it, even if Riku, Kairi and Aqua all look politely interested in the subject.

Kairi teases him when he lets his disgruntlement over the whole thing show on his face, snorting at his sour expression before she forces him to promise to give it a real chance despite his misgivings. Sora retaliates by pinning her interest on it on the fact that she’s a _Princess_ , which makes her laugh and slap his shoulder in response.

Still, he has promised to keep an open mind, so that’s what he’ll do. He’ll probably not be the only one to have trouble with this particular class, anyway; finding out just how badly they all can screw it up is guaranteed to be funny, at the very least.

The thought of it makes him grin; a fortunate result, since they’re just about to enter the classroom and it’d be bad to have their teacher’s first impression of him be of a sour-faced teenager -- that’s a role already filled by Vanitas, anyway. Sora would _hate_ to take the spotlight away from his lookalike’s _magnificent_ scowl of displeasure at this entire thing.

Even if it ends up being as boring as Sora thinks it will be, he’ll still find a way to make the most of it, out of sheer stubbornness if nothing else.

He has lots of promises to fulfill, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's school time!!! Y'all, this chapter absolutely, deadass _refused_ to go the way i wanted it to, lmao! I had originally planned to do an overview of their first week in general, but the chapter looked at me right in eyes and said 'I think the fuck not' before just. going off on its merry way, spawning dialogue out of thin air as I cried in a corner.  
> I like poking fun at how ridiculously tall Axel is, if that hasn't been made clear by now. It's so entertaining! We have the babies, Sora Roxas Ventus Vanitas Naminé Kairi Xion, then we have the 'ok, you guys are tall' Riku Aqua Terra Isa, and then there's Axel, who might as well be a literal goddamn lamp post. One of my rl best friends is also ridiculously tall and thin like that, so I guess I have experience with it lmaooo.  
> So as I mentioned before, my bff (my beta) is a hard ass about letting me curse in this fic. She wouldn't give me permission to have Sora say 'hell yeah', guys! 😤 that's some goddamn bullshit, though, so I had him say it either way u_u I have the final say in here!!!  
> Regarding Donald and Goofy, man, look. I know that they're super important to Sora and whatever but by god, I cannot write them, so I won't pfft. I'll do my best to at least mention them cause that's something I _can_ do, but giving them actual lines is too hard, so I won't lmfao.  
> Sora says that the pillows are good for hugging, but he already has his very own pillow anyway (>;3c), so they end up transferring most of the extra ones to the other bed. He WILL get his pillow fort tho, especially considering the floor cushions in the common room! It's gonna be big and comfy!!!  
> My bff was the one to suggest the Golden Sun games, but don't ask me about them, I've never even heard of them before asking for her help lol I could have let it remain nameless, but that would feel like taking the easy way out and I'm basically a masochist, so.  
> Sora's disdain regarding the etiquette classes is so fun to think about dsdnuifinosm he's not cut out for it! He's too spontaneous to ever remember all the rules and how-to's of it until _after_ he's already put his foot in his mouth, lol. But I have faith in the teachers that Minnie found and in Riku, too — they'll find a way to get him to internalize at least SOME of it 💪🏻  
> Next chapter will be the overview I had originally planned on doing, plus some tasty, **tasty** stuff that's for me to know and y'all to find out ;3


	20. Chapter 19

The Disney Castle Academy surprises its students in many ways during their first three weeks. Sora would say that the biggest one is how little homework they get at the end of each week; he’d been expecting to be sent home with a few dozen questions to answer and a couple of books to read by the following Monday, but they had gotten a way more manageable workload instead, thank _god_.

When Sora talked about it with his dad, Daichi had theorized that it probably had something to do with how small the classes were. After all, most of them had only a handful of students, with others getting all thirteen of them at once; this probably made it easier for the teachers to keep track of their individual progress without having to drown them in assigned readings and piles of worksheets.

Whatever the reason behind it, Sora makes sure to give it the appreciation it richly deserves, especially since it allows him to spend more time playing his dear Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Sora thinks he could have finished the game last week if he’d tried hard enough, but doing so would have involved rushing through the storyline, which isn’t nearly as fun as taking the time to fully explore everything that the game has to offer, in his opinion.

Data-Sora had proved himself to be _invaluable_ to nearly all of the students in the very first week of classes. He kept track of their class times and of the due dates for each of their assignments, while also checking in with each of them periodically to make sure they got their work done on time. Sora had plenty of experience with setting alarms, hearing them go off and then promptly forgetting all about them, but Data-Sora didn’t _let_ him forget, which made him a veritable saint in Sora’s books.

The fact that he had yet to meet Data-Riku kind of bummed him out, to be honest. Data-Sora always looked genuinely apologetic when Sora asked after him, gently explaining that Data-Riku was usually too busy trying to adapt to the increasing amount of requests from the now nearly two _dozen_ gummi phones in operation to come out of the central hub to chat.

He even had to bow out of being Riku’s virtual assistant, leaving Data-Sora to take his place. Moreover, the switch had occurred because it had been somewhat painful for Riku to see Data-Sora when the real Sora was still missing, so there was no real reason not to switch back now that Sora has been back for nearly four months.

Maybe Sora could ask Chip and Dale for help -- see if they can upgrade the system or something, so that Data-Riku wouldn’t be quite so swamped. It might be a long shot, but it’s worth the try, so Sora makes a mental note of mentioning it to the chipmunks when he sees them next.

The amount of homework they got wasn’t the Academy’s only surprise, of course -- they also started gaining one or two new classes per week, as the Queen learned more about each of their interests. In the second week, they got the chance to enroll into a brand-new art class, prompted by Naminé’s love of drawing and painting, while in the third week, Queen Minnie hired a music instructor upon discovering Xion’s interest in playing the guitar.

Sora had decided to join both of those after giving it some thought. He made sure to ask if Riku was alright with it, of course, but Riku had pleasantly surprised him by revealing that he had enrolled in them as well, so they were all set. Considering Sora’s already ambitious workload for the year -- he _was_ going to do his best to finish four years of schooling in only two years, after all -- perhaps it would have been better to ignore those new courses, but then again, Sora has never cared much for moderation.

Plus, they wouldn’t have the same structure as the other classes, since they were there to teach them cool new skills rather than to make sure they understood the usefulness of a complex math equation or the basics of how a being went from a bundle of cells to a fully grown adult. Each student was free to decide how much effort they would put into learning those skills, so Sora felt that he could handle it all just fine.

Aqua and Terra’s interest in various handicrafts led the Queen into arranging for them to meet some of the finest artisans that have been hired by the royal family over the years. The two of them had spent a few mornings in Disney Town already, happily receiving guidance in crafts such as glasswork, carpentry, sewing and metalwork.

They had given their first class on keyblade-focused history just a few days ago, though Sora didn’t know if it could truly be called that. Aqua and Terra knew more about it than any of them, sure, but they hadn’t had much time to prepare, so it ended up´being a learning experience for both sides.

Since the two adults didn’t feel secure enough in their knowledge to give proper lectures quite yet, they had set up something more like a guided study group. Every week, each of the students would do a bit of research on their own with the help of books from the Land of Departure, the Mysterious Tower and King Mickey’s personal collection, then share their findings with the rest of the group on the following week. By doing this over and over again, they would slowly discover the lives of those who came before them, adding their own thoughts and interpretations to the mixture as they did so.

Aqua and Terra had also been recruited by the Castle’s magicians to help with the magic classes most of their group was having, given that none of the old wizards -- or Donald, for that matter -- knew what sorts of adaptations were needed to account for the presence of a keyblade. Terra let Aqua take the spotlight on that one, hanging back with a fond smile as his friend watched over the students with her well-trained eyes.

Naminé had been given a pretty blue staff to help her focus her spells, then was taught the same magic that allowed Donald and Goofy to send their weapons away and summon them back at will. She appeared to be quite happy with it, which was a nice thing to see.

Riku was forced to sit out of their magic lessons, since his heart was still so incomplete; he had said that he didn’t mind it and Sora hadn’t detected any hint of lies in his voice, but it still made him somewhat sad to have Riku stand a few paces behind him at the arena -- unable to join, but forced to watch all the same.

He had considered skipping them at first; partially because of that, but mostly because he already considered himself to be quite proficient at magic after spending so long under Donald’s tutelage. Riku refused to let him sit them out, though, cajoling him into participating in them by talking about all the destructive combos that he could learn with a little more training.

So far, Sora was particularly fond of a Water + Thunder attack that he and Kairi had come up with, though the Fire + Aero combo was a pretty close second, _especially_ if it was done with Axel’s extra powerful Fire spells.

All in all, their time at the Academy was turning out to be really nice. They usually went to the Disney Castle very early on Monday and returned home just before sunset on Thursday to spend some quality time with their parents and bask in the easy familiarity of the Destiny Islands.

Life at the Disney Castle wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, however: the Prank War was going strong, and having all of them living at the same place for half a week was a recipe for disaster, considering the hell they had been able to raise during their three-days stay at the Mysterious Tower.

The pranks themselves had become a _tiny_ bit less destructive. Not even Axel and Vanitas were willing to make a mess on the Castle after all the generosity that the King and Queen had shown them so far, but at least one new prank happened every single day without fail. To be honest, Sora kind of admired their persistence and creativity.

Macaronis under the toilet seat; toothpaste on the inside of door handles; a few drops of water inside someone’s shoes; munny glued to the floor so whoever finds it can’t take it; fiddling with the faucet in the common room’s sink so that the person who opened it next would get sprayed by water -- Sora and Riku had seen the outcome of many of these in person, and heard plenty of others from their friends, too.

Sora nearly laughed himself _sick_ when Naminé and Xion listed out the top five pranks they’d seen happen with Axel, Roxas, Vanitas and Rikuto. He’d had a headache from laughing so hard for a good few hours after it, too, and had insisted vehemently that Riku should be a good best friend and take care of him, since Sora was so clearly hurt. Riku, of course, ignored Sora’s pathetic pleas with a teasing smirk that only made Sora whine louder.

The downside of having so many people participating in the war, however, was that the ones who had chosen to stay out of it weren’t as safe anymore. Riku, for example, had caught more than one person staring at his silver hair with a mischievous glint in their eyes, which _immediately_ prompted him into keeping his shampoo and conditioner on his person at _all_ _times_ \-- even while they slept.

He knew that if he wasn’t careful, his hair wouldn’t stay silver for long. Sora couldn't help but agree with his best friend’s paranoia -- Riku's hair was too pretty as it was to be tampered with.

Sora reached out to play with said silver strands at that thought, scooting backwards a little to be able to do it without accidentally hitting Riku in the face. Over the last few months, he’d discovered that he quite liked to study Riku’s features as he slept; it felt a little creepy to do it sometimes, yeah, but for the most part, he couldn’t really bring himself to care.

Sora would love to be asleep as well, but he’d woken up about half an hour ago and hadn’t been able to fall back asleep since. He hated to be awake so early on a _Friday_ , but it kind of made sense; his body must have finally adapted itself to his new daily schedule.

The first two weeks of classes had been _rough_ , though. He and Riku would fall deeply asleep almost as soon as their heads hit their pillows every night, yet they would still wake up groggy and feeling like they had _barely_ slept, no matter what time the clock told them it was. After their first healing session since classes began, Riku had slept for almost eleven hours straight -- it would have been somewhat worrying if Sora hadn’t come close to doing the same.

But now, with their third week of schooling officially concluded, it looked like they were getting into the rhythm of things at last. Sora hopes that their healing hasn’t been negatively impacted by the sudden change in their routines; if it has, Ienzo will undoubtedly let them know during their visit tomorrow.

It’s far too early to be thinking about what Ienzo may or may not tell them, however, so Sora banishes the topic from his mind with a small huff. He then pulls back the hand that had been petting Riku’s hair to keep his arm from getting too chilled due to the AC’s potency.

Riku doesn’t appear to even notice that Sora has moved, unsurprisingly; his sleep tends to be deeper in the wake of a healing session, so Sora has grown somewhat used to the lack of response. At any rate, the situation gives him the perfect chance to indulge in his attraction to Riku, so he’s definitely not complaining.

He had asked Kairi a few more questions about how crushes were supposed to work a few days ago, but it didn’t quite play out how he’d expected it would. Sora didn’t blame her for not being able to give him clear answers on the topic, obviously, but it was still a little frustrating to receive only vague statements in response to his genuine confusion. He’s well aware that there’s no real way to _know_ if a crush will go away eventually or if it’ll develop into deeper feelings instead, but that doesn’t stop him from _wanting_ to know.

And even if it _did_ develop further, how was he supposed to tell that the feeling had changed? He has no past experiences to guide him in this -- what if, somewhere down the line, he realizes he’s interpreted his own feelings in the wrong way?

Sora can’t deny that he’s physically attracted to Riku, sure, but trying to untangle the emotional side of things might as well be an exercise in futility. He would say he has a minimum of three or four feelings directed at Riku at all times, be it amusement, exasperation, fondness, annoyance, gratitude, amazement, indignation or joy -- name an emotion and chances are high that Sora has felt it towards Riku at some point in their lives.

It was an inescapable consequence of having spent so much time around each other; he knew that. They had seen the very best and the very worst of each other, even before the Destiny Islands fell: they had ugly arguments; had said things they didn’t mean; had hurt one another without meaning to; had laughed together until they were struggling for breath; had spent countless carefree days running around the Play Island with Kairi, as well as dozens of nights watching the night sky in companionable silence as the rest of the Main Island went to sleep.

They had apologized and made amends after every fight -- no matter how begrudging said apologies were -- because they knew deep in their hearts that the bond they had was irreplaceable. Their parents had taught them early in their lives that nursing a bruised ego for a few days or weeks was a small price to pay in exchange for a continued friendship, so the two of them had done their very best to internalize that lesson, even if, at times, it took them a while to cave in.

The two years that Sora and Riku had spent mostly apart hadn’t really done anything to change how well they knew each other, nor had it somehow made them more distant in its aftermath. If anything, they had grown even _closer_ after everything that had happened: their bond was now tempered with the steel of battle and bolstered by a healthy dose of renewed trust, as well as a deep, unshakeable faith in each other’s abilities.

Sora had tried to figure out the depth of his regard for Riku, he _truly_ had, but any singular feeling that he tried to pull out from the mess that was his heart was intrinsically tied to _at least_ a dozen others. If he insisted on pulling, the connections between each feeling just made the _entire thing_ move as a unit, which certainly wasn’t helpful. He was somewhat at a loss as to what to do next, since talking with Kairi hadn’t cleared anything up.

Even if he _did_ manage to examine the romantic feelings he had for Riku on their own, how would he be able to tell if they had grown deeper or not? He had seen a lot of examples of romantic love in his travels, but seeing it in others didn’t make him able to recognize it within himself.

When does a crush stop being _just_ a crush? Was there a checklist of sorts in which he could find answers to help him with this -- one that proclaimed in no uncertain terms that if more than a given number of items applied to Sora’s feelings towards Riku, it was love?

 _I doubt it_ , Sora huffs morosely, pulling the covers up to his ears and burrowing deeper into the mattress. It’s been at least a few weeks since Sora has wished for a cheat sheet on feelings to materialize in front of him quite this hard, but he settles into the same old frustration effortlessly, letting himself sulk to his heart’s content. He’s hoping to get most of it out of his system before Riku wakes, since Sora knows that the other would insist on trying to figure out what’s wrong if he saw him like this.

Some minutes later, the sound of Aiko puttering about on the corridor outside his bedroom gives Sora an idea that has him scrambling out of the bed desperately. He barely avoids jostling Riku awake as he runs to the door and throws it open, startling his mother into a yelp that he is quick to apologize for.

“Mom, can I talk to you about something?” Sora asks in a whisper, fidgeting quite badly as he waits for her reply.

AIko gives him a brief onceover, taking note of his serious expression as well as the restlessness that keeps him from standing still. “Of course, dear. Did something happen?”

Sora shakes his head hastily, stepping out of his room and closing the door as he does so. “Nothing’s wrong, I promise, I just wanna talk to you about a thing. Can we go to your bedroom?”

“Sure,” Aiko nods. Sora follows her as she walks down the hall towards her and Daichi’s room, letting out a quiet word of thanks when she closes her door behind them.

The upper floor of their house is small enough that Sora doesn’t really worry about going out of range from Riku, which is a small blessing that he’s thanked the universe for plenty of times already. More often than not, he honestly doesn’t mind Riku overhearing him talking with his friends and family, but this is something he’d rather keep under wraps -- at least until he understands it better, that is.

Aiko sits on the bed and pats the spot next to her, wordlessly inviting Sora to take a seat. She keeps her posture relaxed and her face neutral, patiently waiting for Sora to decide what to do; something that he is immeasurably grateful for.

He thinks about how to lead into what he wants to ask as he sits by her side, fiddling nervously with the hem of his shirt, but his mouth betrays him before his brain can come up with the right words.

“How did you figure out that you were in love with dad?” he blurts out all at once, blushing deeply once he realizes what he’s just said. _So much for leading into it…_

Aiko raises her brow at the question, her mouth opening a little in surprise, but she recovers her composure quickly. She hums as she reaches up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, studying the room around them as she thinks.

“Well, we had been friends for a couple of years by then, as we’ve told you,” she starts, her lips curling up into a smile seemingly of their own volition. “He’s always been an easy guy to like -- he was funny, earnest, and always made sure that Hoshi and I were comfortable whenever we went out with him and Hotaru,” she continues, her smile losing heart at the mention of Riku’s father. “As for when I realized I was in love with him…

“I had a crush on him for the longest time, which Hoshi constantly teased me about -- not that I let her own crush on Hotaru go unnoticed, either, of course,” Aiko laughs. “You know, it rarely happens like we see in the books or movies; it wasn’t some big moment. I didn’t run to confess to him immediately, nor did I kiss him breathlessly or anything like that,” she snorts. “We’d been kind of dating for a while before I noticed that I wouldn’t mind being with him for the rest of my life, you know?”

Sora smiles despite his nerves, shifting sideways until their arms touch. He’s heard the story of how his parents got together many times before -- Daichi loved to repeat it whenever possible, his voice going all soft as he stared at Aiko with the dorkiest grin _ever_ \-- but even though he usually liked to play the part of whiny child when his parents got started on retelling it, Sora doesn’t think he’ll ever actually get tired of listening to it.

“What made you realize it for real?” he prompts when Aiko goes quiet for a few seconds too long; he doesn’t blame her for getting caught up in her memories, but he’d _really_ like to have an answer.

“A couple of things,” Aiko shrugs with one shoulder, smoothing a hand over her loose shorts. “Hoshi helped me notice the thing that kicked it off, actually; we’ve been best friends since middle school, as you know, and we told each other _everything_ , even the thoughts and opinions that would sound super mean to anyone else, because we knew that we wouldn’t judge one another for it.

“As Daichi and I got closer, though, I started to tell him some of the things that I’d previously only told Hoshi, because he wouldn’t judge me for it either. I think of it as a willingness to share parts of yourself that you’d otherwise hide -- not just thoughts or feelings, but also some forms of physical closeness that you’d be uncomfortable with if it was anyone else, you know?”

Sora has certainly never had a problem with physical touch -- in fact, most of his friends would probably call him _too_ handsy -- but he gets what Aiko means nevertheless. He knows that Riku doesn’t like to be touched by just anyone; Sora still remembers how uncomfortable his best friend got when they finally decided to leave the Mysterious Tower and most of their friends had insisted on hugging them both good-bye.

The list of people that Riku didn’t mind touching him freely was pretty short, and Sora considered himself very lucky to be in it. Still, Sora was meant to be thinking about things that _he_ didn’t mind sharing with Riku, _not_ the other way around, so he stores that particular thought away for later perusal.

Come to think of it, there _is_ something that fits those parameters for Sora, though it’s not something he likes to think about often.

Sora had grown used to putting up a happy-go-lucky front during his journeys, even when that wasn’t exactly how he was feeling -- perhaps _especially_ when that wasn’t how he was feeling, in fact. He doesn’t remember _when_ he started to do it; it’d taken a while for him to realize it was happening, and, once he was aware of it, he had just done it more and more often.

It was easier, in a way, to pretend that he was always perfectly fine, no matter the situation. It was certainly better than having to deal with Donald and Goofy’s awkward attempts to cheer him up. Sora loved them, he really did, but their well-meaning words had had the exact opposite effect more often than he’d care to remember.

But he could always share what he was truly feeling with Riku, with no fear of dismissal or judgement. Riku never made light of his worries or fears -- he’d listen attentively, do his utmost to understand, and then comfort Sora to the best of his ability. He’d usually see right through Sora even when he _did_ try to pretend everything was fine, which made Sora’s heart feel overly full every time it happened.

Aiko is still talking, though, so Sora redirects his attention outwards once more.

“I also missed him way more than my other friends when we hadn’t seen each other in a while,” she hums. “I’d find myself wanting to tell him something funny or frustrating that I had seen or been through, but he’d be too busy to talk for the day, so I would keep accumulating things I wanted to share with him until we had the time to sit down and just _talk_ for hours and hours on end.”

Sora could _definitely_ relate to that feeling -- more than he’d like, even.

Discovering new worlds and revisiting some of the ones he had already been to hadn’t been _nearly_ as exciting without Riku. Travelling with Donald and Goofy was nice, but they weren’t _Riku_ , his best and oldest friend, so it wasn’t like they could really compare.

Donald had told him countless times that they weren’t running around for fun, never missing an opportunity to remind him that they had a mission to fulfill, but Sora didn’t understand why they couldn’t enjoy themselves while they worked towards their goals. He knew that the duck wouldn’t listen even if he tried to argue, though, so he kept his mouth shut for the most part.

Their last journey had already been _leagues_ better than the previous one, anyhow, thanks to their gummi phones: Riku was always just a text away, no matter how far apart they were physically. Sora had spent more sleepless nights texting Riku than he’d like to admit; sneaking out of their tent or the _Highwind_ to do so without the fear of accidentally laughing too loudly and thus startling Donald awake just to scold him for staying up so late.

Then again, _anything_ was better than the months he’d spent searching for Riku, desperate for any signs that his best friend was still alive and well. Sora would gladly take _years_ of only being able to talk to Riku through calls and texts in exchange for never going through that again, _ever_.

He knew Donald and Goofy had been worried for him then, especially once they heard that Riku was going around wearing the Organization coat, but Sora had been too relieved to care. Plus, they didn’t know Riku like Sora did -- to them, he had been just the arrogant kid that had given in to the darkness and hurt Sora in the process, even if he had helped them close the Door to Darkness in the end.

They hadn’t been able to see the apology clear in his stance in that moment, or hear the muted fondness in his tone; Sora, however, had received both of those messages loud and clear.

In any case, Sora and Riku were -- and would always be -- better together. Sora wouldn’t let _anyone_ send them on different missions from now on, no matter how good the reasons for it were. After everything that he’s done for the universe, Sora would say that he deserves the chance to travel around on his own terms, with Riku and Kairi by his side.

Aiko barrels on, pulling Sora’s attention to her once more.

“There’s one more thing that clued me in to how I really felt about Daichi,” she exhales softly, staring down at her joined hands. “I don’t remember what exactly made me think of it, but I _definitely_ remember how unpleasant it was,” she chuckles ruefully.

Sora cocks his head. “What was it?”

“I imagined how it would feel like if he was gone,” Aiko replies, and the words feel like a punch right to the solar plexus. “When I compared that to how it’d feel like if some of my other friends were gone too, I realized that his absence would hurt more than the others’. If any of my friends died, it’d hurt, of course it would, but I could handle it; I could eventually learn how to deal with the space they would have left behind in my life and move on. But I couldn’t bear the thought of either Daichi or Hoshi dying, and since Daichi was the one I had romantic feelings for, well…”

Sora doesn’t need to use his imagination to come up with a scenario in which Riku could have lost his life -- his memories already contain countless moments that fit the bill well enough. Dozens upon dozens of split seconds and little what-ifs that added up to a frankly frightening picture that drew attention to Riku’s mortality by painting him in a sickeningly deep red.

Riku could have realized too late that giving in to the darkness wouldn’t help him achieve his goals; he could have died in the Realm of Darkness after they closed the door, falling victim to the hordes of heartless that waited in the shadows. He could have been unable to fight off Ansem’s hold over him to carve out his own path, or he could have died in any of the many, _many_ battles he’d fought over the years -- most of them far away from Sora, which would’ve _hurt so_ much more.

He could have been killed by Xemnas, right in front of Sora, or he even -- and that particular thought makes him wince - could have died after giving more than one _third_ of his heart to Sora.

The list went on and on and _on_.

Sora is nearly bowled over by a forgotten memory that immediately makes his head pound to the rhythm of his heartbeat. It slips through his fingers no matter how tightly he tries to hold it; all he gets is a few flashes -- Riku standing a few paces away, his back to Sora, a brilliant light against the backdrop of approaching darkness; unintelligible words, a determined shout, despair; the light blinking out, leaving only darkness where it had once been.

A few seconds later, even those flashes disappear from Sora’s memory, and he is left only with the stomach-churning despair.

“Does that help?” Aiko asks him, smiling gently. Sora clings to her presence like a lifeline, willing his heart to keep steady so as not to give her reason to worry.

It takes him a moment, but he eventually nods in response, forcing his lips to curl into a smile. “It does, Mom. It really does.”

He can see the curiosity burning in her eyes, begging her to ask him more questions, but he also sees how she chooses not to act on it. Sora is so grateful for her show of restraint that he finds it in himself to gather her into a hug, pressing his face to the crook of her neck and inhaling deeply as she chuckles and runs her fingers through his hair.

“Thank you for trusting me enough to ask me about this, Sora,” she says after a beat, letting her cheek rest against Sora’s head.

“Of course, Mom,” he frowns somewhat defensively, even though he knows that she didn’t mean to imply that he doesn’t trust her.

“I love you, my baby.”

“I love you too, Mom,” Sora mutters into her blouse.

Sora stays there breathing in Aiko’s familiar, comforting scent until she pulls back with a smile. He leans into her hand when she caresses his temple, earning himself a quiet chuckle.

“My shift begins later than usual today, so there’s still time for me to make breakfast for you boys before I start getting ready,” she tells him, sparing a glance to the clock on the nightstand. “Do you want me to bring it up for you or are you going to wait until Riku wakes up?”

“I’m gonna wait for him.”

“Alright,” Aiko nods. She stands up to leave the bedroom and Sora follows suit, hugging her one last time before she heads downstairs.

He doesn’t give himself any time to second guess himself before he enters his bedroom, quickly closing the door behind him as if to cut off his own escape route. He stays rooted in place for a long while, staring at the still-sleeping Riku as his heart tries its hardest to beat out of his chest.

Everything Aiko had said applies to what he feels about Riku; it did so _so_ perfectly, in fact, that it made Sora’s head spin. He thinks that he should be feeling happy about it -- he has finally found an answer to the question that had been bugging him for _weeks_ \-- but the last point had hit _way_ too close to home, and now it was all that he could think about.

For all that they have acquired fantastical powers and moves, they are still _human_ ; still distressingly mortal, even with all the healing spells and potions they have at their disposal. All it would take is one single misstep: a failed block, maybe a barrier spell brought up too late, and any of them would be gone; a bright light, completely snuffed out in the blink of an eye.

He tries not to think about these things too much, locking them away beneath layers upon layers of cheerful thoughts and willful ignorance instead. It doesn’t do him any good to linger on what might have been -- and doing so won’t help him protect his friends nor defeat their enemies, either -- so he just does his best to avoid the matter altogether.

But Aiko’s words had brought all of that to the surface in one fell swoop. In the resulting onslaught, Sora clings as hard as he can to the fact that everyone made it out of the war against Xehanort alright; that they’re all safe and sound now, working together to heal from the lingering wounds that it had left inside of them.

Sora’s complete unwillingness to accept the loss of any of his friends isn’t anything new, nor mere conjecture -- he _has_ sacrificed himself for them more than once, and he isn’t naive enough to think that he wouldn’t do it over and over again, even with all the promises he’s made otherwise.

He’d do it for any of them -- for Kairi, for Roxas, for Ventus, for Xion; for _everyone_. He knows that he’s somewhat of an outlier in that, but he can’t really help it; all of his friends are equally dear to his heart, and he can’t bear to imagine a world in which any of them are gone for good.

Then again, maybe Sora should amend that statement, now that he knows he’s in love with Riku.

Armed with this new knowledge, he can’t help but think that they’re rather fortunate that Riku’s never been in a situation in which Sora would need to sacrifice himself for him. Sora had forfeited his heart and his very _existence_ so that the rest of their friends could live; if Riku’s life was on the line, Sora would give and give and _give_ until there was nothing of him left.

He leans against the door for support while he processes that last thought, staring straight down at the floor as he takes a few deep breaths in an attempt to bring his heart rate back to normal. The doorknob digs into his side uncomfortably, but he uses the slight ache to his advantage, turning it into an anchor for his turbulent thoughts.

Sora stops brushing his fingers over the doorway once he remembers the height marks that dot it at irregular intervals, irrationally scared of somehow erasing them despite knowing that they were all made with permanent markers. He tilts his head up to see _Riku, 17_ in blue ink, way higher than any of the other marks, but even that fails to dispel the anxiety that runs through his veins like a particularly deadly poison.

Sora admits defeat with a drawn-out sigh. He would have preferred to deal with this on his own, but it’s becoming increasingly obvious that such a thing is just not going to happen, so he pushes himself away from the door to make his way back to bed, pulling the covers over his head before he uses all his limbs to cling onto Riku for dear life.

It doesn’t take very long for Riku to stir, shifting minutely in Sora’s desperate hold while he does so. A few seconds later, he tenses; Sora can hear his heart pick up its pace as he lays a hand on Sora’s trembling back.

“Sora?” he calls worriedly. “What’s wrong? Did something happen; are your parents okay? Is everyone okay?” he asks, his tone getting more and more urgent the longer Sora takes to reply.

“Everyone’s fine,” Sora says at last, shaking his head a little. “No one’s hurt.”

Riku relaxes upon hearing that, but not completely. “But you’re crying,” he argues quietly.

Sora startles a bit upon realizing that he _is_ indeed crying, and then he almost laughs -- of _course_ Riku would notice the depth of his distress before even Sora himself did. It’s far from the first time that such a thing has happened, and Sora doubts it’ll be the last.

He shakes his head again, pressing a little closer to Riku. He has the urge to say that he’s fine, but he knows Riku would probably find that somewhat insulting, so he refrains.

“Did you have a nightmare?” Riku asks with an impossibly soft voice.

“No,” Sora mutters. “I just--” he cuts himself off. Riku remains silent, giving him all the time he needs to gather his thoughts, so he forces himself to continue. “I just… ended up thinking about some stuff I shouldn’t have.”

Riku wordlessly adjusts their positions until he can curl an arm around Sora’s waist as well, sinking his free hand in Sora’s hair to massage his scalp.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t know,” he sniffles, still hiding his face in Riku’s shirt. “I can usually push this all away, but I’m kinda failing at that right now.”

His best friend makes a muted noise of distress, tightening his hold on Sora for a moment. “You don’t have to hide it, Sora. Aren’t you always telling me that I shouldn’t bottle things up and expect them to go away? This is me telling you the same.”

Sora snorts wetly at Riku’s exasperated tone despite himself, sniffling once more before he finally finds the courage to lift his head to meet Riku’s eyes. He gets a half smile in response, as well as the pleasant feeling of Riku’s blunt nails gently scratching his scalp.

It still takes him a while to find the words, but Riku waits it out with infinite patience.

“I started thinking about how lucky we all are to be here; alive and well,” he says eventually, hiding his face from view again. “About how easily things could have gone wrong -- more than just once, even. I don’t like thinking about what could have happened.”

Riku’s breath stutters in his chest. It’s not hard to guess what must be going through his mind now; Riku had to deal with Sora sacrificing himself for their friends multiple times over the years, after all. He nuzzles Riku’s collarbone for a moment -- a silent apology for everything that Sora’s put him through.

“Yeah,” Riku whispers a few seconds later. “I get that.”

Sora jerks his head up. “I couldn’t lose any of you,” he blurts out, feeling like he has to make Riku _understand_ all of a sudden, even though he knows Riku already does. “I _can’t_ lose any of you,” he corrects himself.

Riku holds his gaze unflinchingly, his eyes reflecting the same desperation that Sora is feeling. The sight of it puts a few more cracks in Sora’s already fractured heart, because he’s aware that _he’s_ the reason Riku knows this feeling as well as he himself does.

“I know,” Riku says simply, but the words feel like a ton of bricks stacked onto Sora’s chest.

He feels as if he should apologize, but he doesn’t, because Riku _understands_. He _had_ sacrificed himself for Sora just like Sora had sacrificed himself for the rest of their friends -- and for Kairi -- so he _knows_ how it feels.

“I’m still mad at you for what you did to bring me back,” Sora tells him instead, knowing that Riku will understand this as well. “I don’t blame you for doing it, but I’m still mad.”

He waits until Riku nods in response, then lays his head on Riku’s chest again, letting out a small sigh. He hums when the other goes back to massaging his scalp.

“I can’t lose you,” he mutters under his breath, curling the hand that is lying above Riku’s heart into a fist. _I love you_ , he doesn’t say, but he thinks Riku will get the message anyway -- even if he doesn’t quite realize the exact way in which Sora means it.

“I can’t lose you either,” Riku replies. Sora sighs again.

“We’re just gonna have to be better at all this,” he whispers. “Kairi was right -- eventually, there’ll be nothing left of us to save.”

“Yeah,” Riku huffs. “She’s right about a lot of things.”

Sora snorts into Riku’s neck at that, catching a glimpse of his best friend’s pleased smile as he shifts into a more comfortable position.

“We can’t tell her that, or else she’ll hold it over our heads _forever_ ,” he snickers.

“She totally would,” Riku laughs.

Sora continues to smile as they quiet down, feeling the last drop of his sudden anxiety leave his body. They can’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but they _can_ promise to do better than they have in the past, and that has to be enough.

Plus, now that he’s managed to escape the vortex of bad thoughts that he’d found himself in, Sora can take the time to fully appreciate the one good outcome of this entire ordeal: namely, the fact that he _finally_ knows exactly what he feels for Riku -- in a romantic sense, that is. The rest of his feelings can and will remain a hopeless mess.

He giggles a little at the thought as he rubs his dried tear tracks off, drawing Riku’s attention back to him.

“What is it?” Riku asks, smiling softly at the sound.

Sora would very much like to kiss him, but he kindly nudges that urge away.

“Nothing,” Sora shakes his head slightly, his smile stretching into a grin. “Thank you, by the way. I’m feeling way better now.”

“Yeah? I’m glad,” Riku ruffles his hair.

“Mom went down to make us breakfast some time ago and she’s probably still home, but can we stay here a little longer?”

“Of course,” Riku replies easily, starting to draw nonsensical patterns on Sora’s upper back.

Sora drops his head to Riku’s shoulder with a wistful sigh. There’s still a fair amount of things to figure out now that he knows he’s _in love_ with Riku, but Sora already knows he wants to skip on a lot of the cliche things that always happen in books and movies; such as deciding to hide his feelings forever because he’s afraid that revealing them would ruin their friendship.

Their bond had survived Riku giving in to the _darkness._ It can very well survive a confession.

Sora will have to figure out how and when to do it, of course, and he doubts that doing so will be _easy_ , but he’s not going to let that stop him. A part of him also feels like Riku deserves to know just how important he is to Sora, which is a nice thought as well.

And then there’s always the chance that Riku will reciprocate those feelings in some way, which would be _awesome_ , but Sora tries not to linger on that possibility too much. He doesn’t want to give Riku the impression that he _needs_ to return his feelings, so it would be better to confess without any real expectations of having Riku do it back.

What they have at the moment is still amazing in its own way, at any rate; Sora would be more than happy to keep on being just Riku’s best friend for the rest of their lives, if that’s to be the case. In fact, just having Riku as a permanent fixture in his life is good enough for Sora -- a romantic relationship would simply be the cherry on top of an already delicious cake.

But all that is a problem for future Sora; for now, just being able to exist together in a comfortable silence is enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd say that no Soras were harmed in the making of this chapter, but.... I absolutely covered him with angst knives, so doing so would make me a filthy liar. I have no regrets >;3c  
> I have... so many thoughts and like, headcanons for what happens at the Disney Castle while they finish their schooling.... so many little interactions and group bonding moments!!! I already forgot to add like three or more of them in this chapter, because I'm a forgetful bitch, so I'm gonna have to try to add them in the next chapter instead, lol. If all else fails, rest assured that you'll see them in the author's note at some point.  
> CalicoColors told me in her last comment that she was glad that I wasn't going down the 'school is 100% terrible at all times and it has no redeeming features" route with all this, and I guess I still have some thoughts about that, so I'm gonna talk about it again. School's.... reputation? suffers because of poor execution, because the concept? I love it. I love learning, I love hearing about how the world works, but the way that most schools systems are set up don't really cultivate tha as much as they should.  
> We're just supposed to absorb the knowledge and be able to regurgitate it when necessary; there's rarely an effort to make sure that we _understand_ how a given piece of knowledge can be of use to us in our lives, how we can apply the same concepts to other things further down the line. That's exactly what I mean to change by having them get such a tailored school experience; with such small classes, the teachers have the opportunity to accompany each of them way more closely than they would in a typical setting, thus allowing them to change things around to make sure everyone's needs are being met.  
> I just have a lot of feelings about learning, okay? Don't judge me.  
> I gave Naminé a staff because she deserves a weapon; it'll help her focus her spells!  
> My poor boy Sora is so confused by feelings, and god, don't I know how that feels lmao. I find it really fun to explore the topic of feelings in that way, and I hope it was enjoyable for y'all as well! I can't imagine how hard it'd be to make sense of exactly what they feel for each other when they've been friends for so many years, or been through so many things together. They have really seen the best _and_ the worst of each other, and that just makes their bond even more special! :3  
> My beta left a comment on the line "a failed block, maybe a barrier spell brought up too late, and any of them could be gone": 'critical be like: mmmm watcha say'. I YELLED at this stupid fucking thing. I've been doing a KH3 crit run with fast pass codes (such as automatic hp/mp regen) and yet I've still seen Sora die way more times than I could ever want to, so I can't even imagine how a normal crit run would be, yikes.  
> We finally have it, y'all.... Sora has finally realized that he's in loooooooooove! I just threw the entire 'oh but i can't tell them what if we ruin our friendship forever :(' in the TRASH because fuck that, their bond is stronger than that!!! (Riku needs a reminder, however) That doesn't mean it's gonna happen right away, we still have a few more chapters, but it's gonna happen, lads. I take my sweet time with things, but I _deliver_ >;3c


	21. Chapter 20

Sora, Riku and Kairi’s fifth visit to Radiant Garden goes as smoothly as the four others before it, with Ienzo delivering good news yet again. Riku’s heart had reached 75.5% integrity -- a full three quarters! -- while Sora’s was still following Ienzo’s estimates to the letter, having risen to 94.2%.

In the two weeks that followed their visit, however, Sora realized that in the wake of each of their healing sessions, Riku would be as exhausted as he had been when they first started doing them. He would sleep for over ten hours, still be out of it when he woke up, _and_ would remain feeling vaguely unwell until Sunday morning, which was quite a change from what they had gotten used to.

Sora hadn’t been the only one to notice this, either: Kairi had sensed that something strange was going on in the first week, but decided to wait to check if it would happen again before she pointed it out to Sora and Riku. She had quietly confessed that she’d been scared to make a big deal out of it in case it was just a natural hiccup, which prompted Sora and Riku to hold her tight until she accused them of trying to suffocate her with a small laugh.

At that point, their next appointment in Radiant Garden was only one week away, so Ienzo advised them to be a little extra careful while keeping a close eye on Riku after the next session, just to be safe. He looked like he had a theory in the works, but he’d insisted that they’d need more data before he could further develop it, so the three of them had let him return to his research.

A small part of Sora -- and a rather large part of Kairi -- wanted to call off the healing sessions until they knew more about what was going on with Riku’s heart _this_ time, but Ienzo had told them to proceed as usual, so that’s what they’ll do.

Classes at the Academy have picked up their pace in the past few weeks, anyhow, which certainly helps with keeping them from thinking too much about the matter of Riku’s heart. Any free time they have is devoted to either hanging out with their friends or sleeping as much as they can -- or, occasionally, _both_ of those things at the same time, by courtesy of Sora’s insistence on building blanket nests in the common room.

Even _Vanitas_ had joined some of them, though he’d usually lay as far as possible from anyone else, constructing an elaborate set up that would have him wake up immediately if anyone came too close. Sora couldn’t exactly blame him for it; Roxas had once woken up with elaborate scribbles done all over his face in permanent marker, so they all knew to sleep with one eye open lest they become the next victim.

The funniest one so far had been Axel waking up with inverted teardrops on his cheeks, just like the ones he used to have as a Nobody -- if only for the fact that it had taken most of them the better part of a day to realize that something had changed! Sora suspected that Isa had been the culprit on that one, and Riku agreed -- both of them had caught a glimpse of a black marker on Isa’s pocket later that day, with the man gracing them with a small smirk when they’d given him questioning glances.

Axel’s flippant refusal to go back to Twilight Town when his and Isa’s classes were done for the week was a point of contention between him and Roxas, though Sora knew his Nobody well enough by now to know that he insisted on bringing it up just because he liked to heckle Axel at every available opportunity. Axel would smirk and argue that he’d much rather stay at the Castle to pester Roxas and Xion than go back home and leave them be, but Sora had a theory that Axel stayed because he’d be _lonely_ if he did go home without them. 

The main event of the past week, however, had been the morning in which Rikuto came out of the shower with multicolored hair: an unholy mixture of blue, yellow and green, to be specific. Riku had been amused and sympathetic in equal amounts, having managed to keep his natural silver protected due to his paranoid watch over his own hair products -- a fact that he’s made sure to rub into the face of everyone who had teased him about it.

Rikuto’s reaction to it was rather lackluster, which must have been a disappointment to whoever had orchestrated the prank. He’d made it seem more like a minor inconvenience than a world-threatening event, honestly; Sora had actually seen him studying the mess his hair had become with a considering glint in his eyes, hinting at the possibility of an _intentional_ dye job happening at some point in the future.

Sora turned this idea around in his head for some time before finally coming to the conclusion that colored hair would probably suit Rikuto. Maybe not _all_ of his hair -- it’d be weird for all the silver to be suddenly gone -- but he could definitely rock a dip-dyed look. A dark blue or some sort of purple would look nice.

In the meantime, though, Sora and Riku help Rikuto get an appointment with a hair stylist at the Destiny Islands to fix the mess created by the prank.

It’s interesting to note that he still can’t see _Riku_ with anything other than his natural silver, however, which makes Sora somewhat happy; he knows that Rikuto has been trying his best to find an identity of his own, separate from Riku’s, so it’s nice to realize that the divide between them is already there in Sora’s mind.

Another thing that the Academy has made possible is the interexchange of skills amongst its students. A lot of them are surprised to discover that Sora can cook, and even _more_ surprised by the fact that he does it _well_ ; Roxas, Xion and Axel had made small noises of understanding when Riku explained that Sora had, ahem, _apprenticed_ under the Bistro’s talented cook, though the rest of them had never been to the cozy little restaurant, so they remained comically amazed.

Sora is pretty sure that only he, Riku and Kairi knew that the Bistro’s chef is actually a rat -- a thought that brought him a great deal of amusement. He’s considered telling them about it, but, for starters, he doubts that any of them would believe him, and it’d be _way_ funnier to show them instead. He cackles just from imagining the looks on their faces when he leads them into the Bistro’s kitchen and they see that the only one inside it iss a _rat_.

Xion and Ventus would usually stick to Sora whenever he decided to cook something, watching his actions very closely. Sora recruited them as his helpers after the second time it happened, using Riku and whoever else was nearby to taste test the dishes the three of them came up with. Riku always accepted it easily, smiling indulgently at Sora’s excitement, while the others took some cajoling at times, even though Sora had yet to come up with a bad dish.

Aqua and Terra were also willing to share their many hobbies with anyone who showed an interest in learning. Aqua, for example, was teaching Sora, Riku, Kairi and Naminé how to make jewelry. She’d been a little surprised to discover that Sora and Riku wanted to learn it as well, but accepted them without reservations once Sora shrugged noncommittally with a wide grin.

The two of them have never been into wearing jewelry themselves, but Sora still likes the idea of creating little earrings, necklaces and bracelets for those that _do_ like using them. The Percy Jackson series had the camp-dwellers wearing necklaces with a bead for each of the years they’d been in Camp Half-Blood, which is an intriguing thought, though Sora has yet to find a way to apply this concept to their mismatched bunch of friends.

If he does figure out a way to do something similar, his new jewelry-making skills will help him make it a reality; if he doesn’t, well, he’ll still have acquired one more way to keep himself busy, at the very least. Kairi would certainly not complain about getting more earrings, at any rate.

Riku blushed a little when Sora asked him why _he_ had taken an interest in it, quietly explaining that he liked how precise it could be. Putting small beads onto a thin string or making sure that a flimsy piece of wire bended _just right_ was tedious work, sure, but it was a task that required most of his focus if he wanted the end product to be like he’d envisioned, which in turn gave him a way to simply stop thinking for a while.

He’d also taken up carving under Terra’s tutelage; carefully chipping away at solid blocks of wood to create little statues and sculptures. Sometimes Terra’s carving class and Aqua’s jewelry-making class would happen at the same time, with Riku bowing out of the latter to join the former. They’d all share the same room for it, so Sora, Aqua, Kairi and Naminé would end up working on their projects for the day to the sound of Terra and Riku’s methodical carving just a few paces away.

Sora, Ventus and Roxas had tons of fun skating all over the Castle’s wide halls and sprawling courtyards, coming up with new and crazier tricks every time they did it. Riku -- and sometimes Kairi -- would follow along in rollerblades, laughing at their antics. Roxas had been almost offended when Xion decided to learn how to rollerskate instead of joining him on the skateboard, but Xion’s mind was set, so he was forced to admit defeat.

It had taken some coaxing, but Axel eventually agreed to teach all of them how to make homemade fireworks. The cajoling hadn’t been aimed at Axel, obviously; in fact, he had been _ecstatic_ to know that some of them wanted to learn. Riku, Aqua and Terra, however, had had their reservations about the whole thing, but they were completely overridden by the rest of the group after a few days of relentless pestering.

When approached about it, the Castle’s wizards had directed them to a secluded yard at which they practiced more destructive spells, so the group made their way towards it one evening, carrying all the firework supplies they could ever wish for. The allure of being able to set things on fire on purpose had drawn out even Vanitas, who hung at the back of the group as usual while conversing in low tones with Rikuto.

Isa had tagged along wordlessly, sitting down near the edge of the barren arena to watch Axel make a fool of himself in real time. Aqua had a Water spell at the ready for pretty much the entire time they were there, which thankfully had only to be used twice. It’d taken a fair amount of begging and the most pitiful set of puppy eyes he could manage, but Sora had eventually managed to get Riku to join them in their love for destruction, allowing him to take over the measuring of the necessary chemicals so that Riku would feel more secure about it.

Axel’s insistence on teaching them the correct way to handle the compounds they were using was somewhat funny, but it made sense; as a pyromaniac, he knew exactly how bad things could get if something went wrong. Aqua also made sure to hover threateningly whenever he joked about things exploding, which made a lot of them look away to hide their snickering.

In the end, no one got hurt. The most evidence that they’d spent a whole evening setting stuff on fire, aside from the leftover supplies they were taking back with them -- ‘ _never_ leave this stuff hanging around on accident!!’ Axel had insisted vehemently -- was the few traces of some of the chemicals they’d used staining their fingers and clothing.

Skills weren’t the only things shared, obviously: they also introduced each other to new books, shows, games and music. The Nobodies and Vanitas were more recipient than instigator in this particular exchange, seeing as how most of them had come into existence only two years ago, and as such didn’t have a lifetime of acquired interests just waiting to be revealed. Vanitas was technically only a few days older than Sora, but his heart had been asleep for nearly as long as Ventus’, so everyone agreed that it didn’t really count.

Well, Vanitas didn’t, not really, but everyone _else_ did, so it didn’t matter.

It was fun to see Aqua, Terra and Ventus catch up with the things that they had liked a decade ago, especially when they discovered that a series or another had been concluded while they were ‘away’. Some of their favorite bands and singers had released half a dozen albums in the last twelve years, while others had completely dropped out of the public eye, so they could never reliably guess which category a given artist was going to fall into.

Sora, Riku and Kairi’s little reading sessions had become somewhat of a public event after Ventus found them polishing off a few chapters from _The House of Hades_ in the common room. He’d been fairly excited once Sora described some of the books he and Riku had read in the past months, which had also attracted the attention of Naminé, Xion, Axel and Rikuto, when they caught wind of it.

A couple of days later, group reading sessions had been added to the list of things they all did in their spare time, with different people participating on it depending on which book was being read at the moment. They switched up who did the actual reading, too; sometimes, they’d pass the book to someone else every time a chapter ended, while on others they’d spend an entire session with the same reader.

Everyone had their own interpretations and reading styles, so it was quite entertaining to pass it around and figure out who had different voices for each character, or got _really_ into it -- making all the appropriate expressions and noises that were described in the book. Riku had confessed to Sora that he was just waiting for the day in which the sessions would turn into a full-blown dramatic reading, causing Sora to laugh at the resulting mental image until his stomach hurt.

The current week’s main event was bound to be the Dream Festival taking place at Disney Town, however.

Queen Minnie had invited them to it during lunch on Monday; Aqua, Terra and Ventus had been elated to know that it still happened every year, drawing the Queen into a long-winded conversation that left most of the others completely befuddled.

At any point, it’s been years since Sora’s last proper visit to a fair -- the Kingdom of Corona’s festival had been nice, but Sora hadn’t really had the chance to fully appreciate it -- so he’s definitely excited about the whole thing. The Destiny Islands didn’t really have an amusement park like the ones he’d sometimes see in the movies; Sora guesses they didn’t see much of a point in going through the trouble of building one when the Islands’ population barely reaches the mid-hundreds.

That doesn’t seem to be an issue to the residents of Disney Town, though, if what Sora’s heard about the upcoming festival is anything to go by. Aqua, Terra and Ventus have plenty of stories to tell about it as well, which only hypes him up more; Sunday can’t come by fast enough!

When the much-awaited day _finally_ arrives, Sora, Riku and Kairi kiss their parents good-bye a day earlier than usual, setting out towards the Play Island a couple of hours after breakfast. The Queen had said that the festival went on until evening, so the three of them had decided it’d be easier to just sleep at the Castle, rather than come back to the Islands only to make the same trip in the following morning. This should technically allow them to sleep a little longer before classes start on Monday, but Sora’s willing to bet that they’re just going to end up staying up late instead.

Riku’s still a bit woozy as they row to the Play Island, so Kairi manhandles him out of rowing duty. He’s forced to sit awkwardly between her and Sora, trying his best to fit all his long limbs into the middle of the boat alongside their three bags, which steals a few snickers out of Sora and Kairi.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it all up,” Riku grumbles. The edges of the boat must be digging into the sides of his knees uncomfortably, but he maintains his cross-legged position. “It’s not like either of you will ever get to my height, anyway,” he drawls, his lips curling into a teasing grin.

“ _Hey!_ ” Sora and Kairi protest simultaneously. Both of them forget to keep rowing in their indignation, which only makes Riku’s resulting laughter even brighter.

 _God_ , Sora wants to kiss him so bad.

He’s thought about confessing about a _hundred_ times just in the past two weeks, but he’s stopped himself short every single time. A lot of his hesitation comes from nerves; every time he thinks about saying it, about two million bugs pop into existence in his ribcage, flying and buzzing and crawling around madly until he feels like he’s going to hurl if he even _dares_ to open his mouth. The rest of it can be attributed to a niggling feeling deep in his gut that insists that he should _wait_ ; that it’s not the right time yet; that it’s not the right place...

Sora kind of wants to take that feeling by the shoulders and shake it until it explains its reasoning, but he ends up listening to it all the same. His instincts have yet to lead him astray, after all; annoying as it may be, he trusts it not to fail him. If six months from now it still hasn’t let up, though, Sora might just have to stage a riot.

Only time will tell.

For now, he pushes the urge to kiss Riku senseless back into its corner -- where it has been growing bigger and unrulier with each passing day, by the way -- and kicks Riku’s shin at the same time in which Kairi punches his shoulder, drawing yet more laughter out of their mean best friend.

By the time they arrive at the Disney Castle, Riku appears to be completely recovered from Thursday’s healing session, which has both Sora and Kairi letting out sighs of relief. Queen Minnie is too busy with last-minute preparations to join everyone for lunch, but King Mickey tells them plenty of stories about the past Dream Festivals in her stead, so it’s not long before the room is filled with excited muttering as well as the occasional shout or burst of laughter.

“I wonder if the Festival is ready for a dozen or so keyblade wielders to start wreaking all sorts of havoc around,” Riku half-smirks as they make their way out of the Castle.

Disney Town is only a few minutes away on foot, so they had waved off the King’s offer to call up a couple of carriages to take them there. Sora thinks they’ll probably take him up on that when it’s time to head back, though, depending on how long they spend at the festival or how many prizes they end up winning in carnival games and the like.

“Let’s not forget Naminé and Isa!” Kairi singsongs, grinning when Riku swats her away. “I’d argue against the idea that we’re all destructive hellions or something, but I know better than that.”

Xion chuckles and adjusts her pace to match theirs, laughing quietly when Roxas protests, having lost his conversation partner. “We’re so used to being surrounded by people with special abilities that it’s a bit weird to remember that we’re not the norm,” she says, sounding like she’s given this matter a great deal of thought.

“Yeah,” Kairi nods. “We can’t really compare ourselves to normal people anymore, in some ways.”

“Which just means we’re gonna be _awesome_ at all the carnival games!” Sora exclaims with a wide grin, drawing short bursts of laughter out of Riku, Kairi and Xion. He’s glad that he’s managed to cheer them all up -- Kairi and Xion sounded way too melancholy for a moment there, and they’re supposed to be gearing up to have _tons_ of fun, so he couldn’t let that stand.

“The vendors are all gonna hate us,” Rikuto pipes in with a mischievous tone.

“Oh, I’m looking _forward_ to that,” Vanitas smirks dangerously.

“Let’s _try_ not to make them go bankrupt, please,” Naminé smothers a giggle.

“No promises!” Sora shrugs playfully, prompting yet another round of laughter.

“You’re a menace,” Riku tells him, ruffling his hair with a grin.

“And we wouldn’t have you any other way,” Kairi reassures him, reaching out to pat his shoulder somewhat condescendingly; Sora sticks his tongue out at her for it.

They make a couple of quick decisions as they come within sight of Disney Town, in the interest of making things easier for everyone. First, they’re going to spend some time fully exploring what the Festival has to offer before they commit to doing anything; second, they’re going to leave the carnival games for later, since no one wants to be carrying god knows how many prizes around for the entire afternoon; and third, no going on crazy rides right after eating, so as to prevent any unfortunate accidents from happening.

They find the Queen talking to some food vendors. She greets them all warmly, and is very pleased to know that they’ve enjoyed what they’ve seen so far. She also points them in the direction of a few rides and attractions that she thinks they might like, waving gracefully at them as they go check it out.

The person in charge of the bumper cars startles when she sees thirteen people walking in her direction, but she’s quick to recover from the shock.

“Would you like to enter this round or wait for the next, sir?” she asks Sora, since he’s the one closest to her and nearly everyone else is caught up in conversation.

Sora peers into the rink a few paces ahead, taking note of the handful of cars with little kids accompanied by their parents, then hides a wince.

“We’ll wait, thanks,” he smiles, herding their group away from the entrance so as not to block anyone’s access to the ride.

They step forward when the current round ends, letting the woman scan their fancy life passes -- courtesy of the Queen -- as they file into the rink, playfully jostling one another as they decide who is going to get which car. Seeing as there are fifteen little colorful cars, there’s no need for any of them to double up; the rink isn’t _that_ big, either, so Sora feels secure in the knowledge that he and Riku won’t stray too far from each other.

There’s not much violence to be had with _bumper cars_ , but that doesn’t make them any less savage at it, which is downright _hilarious_. Roxas, Xion and Isa team up at one point to lock Axel into a corner, laughing heartily at Axel’s indignant protests; Vanitas makes it his mission to bump _everyone_ at least once with as much force as he can manage, though he does hound Aqua and Kairi whenever possible; Terra and Ventus take turns at bumping each other and joining up to annoy other people; the list goes on and on.

Sora laughs so hard at it all that he probably spends more time with his eyes closed than open, though he also makes sure to bump as many of his friends as he can. When their five minutes are finally over, he finds that his abdomen is already starting to get sore from laughing so much. He resigns himself to it with a beaming grin; if it gets too bad, he can just cast a quick and hopefully surreptitious Cure on himself, then he’ll be right as rain again.

He finds great joy in taking turns at being the group’s ringmaster, especially since he knows that they probably won’t stick together for their entire stay at the festival. He and Roxas get a fair amount of groans and grumbles from the others when the two of them decide that they _need_ to have a go at Disney Town’s biggest rollercoaster -- filled with loops, sharp turns and a massive sheer-drop. With ‘they’ meaning ‘everyone’, of course!

Roxas absolutely refuses to take no for an answer, so he and Sora cajole and taunt all of the dissenters into eventually accepting to go at it at least once.

Naminé and Xion are a particularly unflattering shade of green when the ride ends. Both of them stumble out of their seats and collapse on the nearest bench to catch their breath, with Rikuto and Kairi rubbing their backs soothingly as they try their best to keep their lunch firmly _inside_ their stomachs. Terra doesn’t look so hot, either, but he’s steady on his feet, so that’s a definite bonus; lastly, Sora notices Vanitas hiding a stumble of his own, and he takes his lookalike’s fiercer-than-usual scowl to mean that he also didn’t enjoy it.

Axel, meanwhile, is proclaiming his love for the entire thing to anyone who’ll listen, shaking Roxas by the shoulders in excitement until the Nobody pushes him away with a yell of displeasure. Sora thinks his own (slightly) manic grin succeeds in conveying the fact that he’s enjoyed the experience as much as Axel, and if the exasperated look at Riku’s directing at him is anything to go by, he’s right.

“We can go again later, right?” he asks Riku, readying himself to beg and plead until his best friend agrees, if necessary. Riku doesn’t seem to have hated it, but he doesn’t look like he loved it either, so he may need some convincing.

“Later,” Riku agrees, smiling indulgently. “But just a couple of times!”

Sora lets out a loud whoop, giving Riku a quick hug before he bounds off to check on Xion and Naminé.

They move along once the girls have recovered. Ventus leads them all to a funny-looking machine that is apparently part of some sort of rhythm game involving ice-cream, talking excitedly about how he’d helped Donald’s nephews figure out how it worked a decade ago. Axel immediately perks up at the mention of ice-cream, so they end up taking turns at playing it.

It’s not really surprising to discover that the music students have a slightly better time at it than most of the others, though Ventus remains the indisputable champion amongst them. The stage is a frightful mess once they grow tired of it, but the machine’s operators just wave their concerns off, assuring them that this always happens.

Sora’s hands are uncomfortably sticky by the time he’s finished with the three-scoop ice-cream he’d gotten from that whole ordeal, but unlike Axel, he’s managed to keep his clothes free of it, so he counts it as a win. Kairi makes fun of Axel for being a total disaster given human form, which prompts the man to run after her with his hands outstretched, trying his damnedest to spread the stickiness to her too. She screams and laughs in disgust when he succeeds in touching her shoulder, then proceeds to find the nearest fountain so they can wash it all off.

They go onto a few swings next, so when their feet are firmly on the ground again, Sora’s more than halfway through with screaming himself hoarse -- a fact that has him guzzling down the water that Riku passes him with great relish. This time, Kairi is as excited about the ride as Sora and Axel, which only makes Aqua shake her head with a chuckle.

“You’re all adrenaline junkies,” she smiles somewhat fondly.

“You’re only noticing this _now_?” Riku grins, laughing under his breath when Sora protests the statement.

“I think I have just the thing for you,” Terra grins, then leads them to the racing track, where they meet up with Chip and Dale.

Sora’s eyes almost sparkle at the sight of the meandering tracks. He turns to Riku with a playful grin and a bold challenge at the tip of his tongue, but then he realizes that there’s no way they’ll be able to stay in range of each other mid-race, especially if they really intend to win, which has him deflating a little. He recovers quickly, however, redirecting his competitiveness to the rest of their friends as Riku raises his eyebrows at him.

“We’re gonna have to double up,” Sora declares, leaving no room for argument. Riku snorts at the determination clear in his tone for a moment, then calls up his own competitiveness, nodding in agreement.

“Hey, that’s not fair!” Roxas huffs, crossing his arms as he stares accusingly at Sora.

“Aw, c’mon!” Sora whines. “It’s just racing, what difference is it gonna make?”

“You’ll be able to keep a way better lookout than the rest of us!” Roxas scowls. Sora crosses his arms as well, mimicking his Nobody’s stance.

“You’re gonna let that stop you from trying to win?” Sora fires back, knowing just which buttons to push.

“Hell no!” Roxas glowers.

“Then it’s settled!” Sora replies with a tone of finality, dragging Riku by the wrist to the area in which they can choose their vehicles as Roxas grumbles up a storm behind them.

“I’m gonna leave you all in the _dust_ ,” Vanitas boldly informs them, cracking his knuckles with a dangerous grin.

“You wish!” Rikuto scoffs.

Sora tunes everyone out, choosing to devote the entirety of his focus to choosing the best vehicle for the two of them. “Do you have any preferences?” he asks Riku in an undertone, sparing a brief glance to the others as they start to weave between the rows of automobiles as well.

Riku hums for a second. “Well, it’s gotta be something that’ll fit us both…”

He stands at attention once he catches sight of something, leading Sora to it and presenting it with a small flourish.

“A motorbike?” Sora inquires, turning the idea of using it around in his head a few times.

“I rode one of those during our Mark of Mastery exam, in Tron’s world,” Riku reminds him.

“Oh yeah, you _did_ tell me that! Do you wanna use it?”

“I don’t know if having used one in the Sleeping Realm will help us in the real world, but it’s worth a shot, right?” Riku shrugs. “Would you rather pick something else?”

“Nah, this is cool,” Sora shakes his head, giving the bike an appraising glance. “We can switch drivers every new race,” he suggests, smiling when Riku agrees. “You should go first, since you’re more familiar with it.”

“Right,” Riku nods. Sora helps him get the motorbike out of the parking lot and into the race track, where half of their friends are already waiting.

They find Naminé and Xion sitting next to Chip and Dale in front of half a dozen monitors, which Sora guesses will be used to keep watch over the participants. The two girls are the only ones to have bowed out of the race, so there will be ten competitors on the same track -- well, eleven, if you want to get technical.

“It’s going to be a little crowded,” Riku observes with a small frown.

“That’ll only make it more fun, right?” Sora grins playfully, laughing when Riku huffs in amusement.

“We’ll see about that.”

Chip and Dale direct them to a training course first, so as to let everyone get used to their chosen vehicles without spoiling the tracks they’ll actually compete in. Sora and Riku watch their friends attentively as they wait for their turn, building analyses and strategies under their breath as they do it.

Sora only realizes what, exactly, he’s signed up for when their turn arrives and Riku climbs onto the motorbike, leaving plenty of space in the back for Sora to join him. Considering the speeds they’ll probably get to, they’ll have to be pressed very close together, with Sora clinging on to Riku for dear life; the mere idea of it has Sora’s brain producing dozens of error messages, even though he’s no stranger to being physically close to Riku.

“Sora?” Riku calls when Sora spends a few seconds too many frozen in place.

Sora almost jumps at the sound of his voice, muttering a quick apology and deciding he’s better off ignoring the few giggles he hears from his friends as he hurries to climb onto the bike behind Riku.

He hides his fierce blush by pressing his face to Riku’s back, taking a few deep breaths as his best friend figures out their vehicle. Sora whispers another apology when Riku lets him know that his hold is a bit too tight, but he starts the motor before Sora can loosen his grip, so Sora ends up only tightening it instead.

“You good?” Riku asks him once they’ve set off, raising his voice to be heard over the cutting wind; Sora can already feel his arms going a bit cold, which makes him suddenly grateful for the fact that Riku is blocking most of it.

“Yeah!” Sora yells back, finding the courage to loosen his hold enough to look backwards.

He begins to understand what Roxas meant by the two of them having an unfair advantage as he studies the track around them. With Sora at the back, Riku doesn’t need to worry about watching his six; he can devote his entire focus to the path ahead, trusting that Sora will let him know if anyone gets too close.

Sora’s not about to admit that to Roxas, though, or any of the others -- they’ll probably bully him and Riku into sitting out if he does, or otherwise decide to double up too, and then the two of them would lose their nice little advantage. He’s already issued the challenge to the others to try and beat them, anyway; it’ll be fun to spice things up.

Riku does a few laps around the track to fully familiarize himself with the bike, carefully following its sharp turns and narrow passageways. Once he deems himself proficient enough at it, he stops at the training course’s starting point to switch places with Sora, giving him a quick explanation of how to control it.

Sora’s brain short-circuits outright when Riku climbs onto the bike behind him, then begins to leak out of his ears when Riku’s arms encircle his torso. He forces himself to breathe deeply -- feeling Kairi’s absurdly smug gaze on him -- and steels himself in his determination not to give any of their friends the satisfaction of seeing him freak out over this before he starts the engine, ignoring how Riku’s wonderful arms tighten around him as a result.

It’s really no surprise that Sora takes off at a way faster speed than the one he’d intended, causing Riku to let out a short yelp right next to his ear as he scrambles to adjust it.

“Be careful!” Riku exclaims. “You need to ease up into it!”

“I know, I’m trying!” Sora insists, forcefully shutting off the part of his brain that is still gushing about Riku with no signs of stopping any time soon.

The fact that Riku keeps muttering tips and directions _right into his ear_ \-- skid here, watch out for that bump on the road, lean to the right there -- is so far from helpful that it’s not even funny, but Sora grits his teeth and follows them anyway. He’s not about to let his stupidly unruly feelings get in the way of the two of them leaving their friends in the dust, no _sir_.

He’d been right in thinking that the wind would be way worse when sitting in the front, but it helps him remain focused, so he finds it within himself to be grateful for the cold blast. He’s pretty sure that he’s encountered chillier winds while sliding on rails in his travels, but he’s locked in position this time around, so it’s not long before his face goes a bit numb from it.

Sora’s still toasty warm wherever Riku’s body is touching his own, but he’s trying not to think about that.

Kairi’s making an _amazing_ impression of the cat that got the canary by the time Sora decides he’s had enough practice, though Sora avoids looking at it, lest the desire to somehow shove her head into a pie or something grows too big to ignore. She’ll probably hold all this over his head for years to come, so he’ll have to play at willful ignorance whenever possible to make sure _both_ of them survive such an ordeal.

Compared to the rest, the next handful of practice rounds they sit through pass by in the blink of an eye, so it’s not long before they’re making their way to the official track -- one of them, at least -- and arguing amongst themselves over how they’re going to be organized at the starting line so as to not be unfair to anyone. Chip and Dale put an end to that by arranging them all according to the official guidelines, however, which causes more than just a few grumbles.

Sora lets Riku be the first to drive again, seeing as he’ll probably need a bit more time to mentally prepare himself to race with Riku’s arms around him. He can’t help but exchange a grin with Riku as they wait for the first race to start, feeling adrenaline grip him by the shoulders and shake him into oblivion.

Terra and Ventus fly ahead as soon as the gong goes off, both of them confident as only someone who knows the course well could be. Sora’s thankful for the fact that he doesn’t even need to tell Riku to follow them to the best of his ability, since they’ll probably know shortcuts and tricks that none of the others would.

“Kairi is closing in on us!” Sora yells over the roar of the engines. “On our right!”

“I’m on it!” Riku replies, skidding on the next sharp curve to get some more distance between them.

They finish the first race in third place despite their best efforts. Terra and Ventus’ confident kick-off had given them too much of an advantage, with the gap between the two of them and the rest of the participants only growing with each lap. Sora knows most of the things to expect from the course now, though, so he’s not going to let them get another easy win.

They lose about two hours of the afternoon to racing in Disney Town’s many circuits. Everyone wins at least _once_ , though Terra and Ventus continue to have the upper hand in most of the tracks due to past experience. Roxas, Kairi, Isa, Vanitas, Sora and Riku refuse to make it easy for them, though, pushing their respective vehicles to the limit and lying in wait for even a minor misstep that could allow them to speed ahead.

It’s absolutely exhilarating. They only agree to stop because the stomachs of half of them have been rumbling threateningly for the past three races, so it’s really in their best interest to go looking for food before their bodies decide to do anything more drastic.

After filling themselves up with festival food, they wander around until they find the Fruitball court. Aqua’s the one to explain how it works, since she’s the only one who’s played it before. Once she’s said her piece, Kairi, Axel, Roxas, Vanitas and Rikuto all step forward to play it, with Aqua herself rounding out their numbers.

“Not again,” Ventus groans upon seeing Aqua, Kairi and Vanitas all express an interest in it.

“Why am I not surprised?” Riku smiles wryly.

The rest of them watch as the three troublemakers argue about which team should get Roxas and which should be left with Axel, prompting Axel to scream something about chopped livers. Rikuto is no help whatsoever, preferring to let the three of them duke it out on their own; he raises his arms in surrender with an amused grin when Vanitas glares at him for his silence, then proceeds to take a step back from his friend, just to be safe.

Aqua and Kairi eventually win Roxas, leaving Axel to sulk with Vanitas and Rikuto. Sora catches Axel mumbling about how they never let him and Roxas stay in the same team, which makes him snicker a little, though he definitely gets the feeling.

Some of them split from the group to go explore on their own while Aqua and the others play their unsurprisingly bloodthirsty Fruitball matches, but Sora and Riku decide to keep on watching, just in case the trio’s rivalry lands them in trouble. It’s nice to have a moment to cool down, too, after all the crazy rides and high-speed races they’ve been in already.

Still, they’re not the only ones wanting to use the Fruitball court, so the guy in charge of the game eventually approaches Sora and Riku to politely ask their group to allow others to play as well, having obviously realized that approaching the six players instead would _not_ be a good idea. It takes some effort to get them all to stop -- and Sora can see that they’re going to be fighting about who won for _weeks_ \-- but Sora and Riku manage it just fine.

The ceremony to present the winner of the Million Dreams Award happens just as the sun is starting to set, drawing all the festival-goers to the town’s Main Square. On their way there, Sora glimpses a pumpkin, which fills him with a sudden desire to visit Halloween Town and check how Jack and Sally are doing.

“Hey Riku, we’re getting close to Halloween, right?” he asks, tilting his head up to catch Riku’s gaze.

“Yeah, it’s,” his best friend frowns for a second, “October 22nd, today,” he continues after a beat. “Why?”

“We should spend it on Halloween Town next year,” Sora suggests, snickering at the idea of finding out what each of his friends would be after the blending-in magic did its job. “We’ll be busy with classes on this one, but we can arrange something for next year’s, right?”

“Sure,” Riku huffs out a laugh.

“You really want us to go there, huh?” Kairi teases him, linking their arms together.

“It’s gonna be _so_ much fun!” Sora insists. “We could visit Christmas Town while we’re there, too, oh, ohh, and maybe we could also explore the other trees that I didn’t get the chance to take a look at!”

“Trees?” Riku asks dubiously, then shakes his head. “No, nevermind, don’t tell me.”

“You’ll get it when we go there!” Sora reassures him, letting Kairi maneuver both of them until she can link arms with Riku as well.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Riku snorts.

Sora does his best to pay attention to Queen Minnie’s speech about the Dream Festival, but he still finds himself starting at all the colorful signs and stores that surround them. As such, he’s somewhat surprised to hear the Queen call Aqua, Terra and Ventus onto the stage; Kairi huffs amusedly when Sora frowns at her in confusion, explaining under her breath that the town’s inhabitants have decided to bestow them the prize due to how only one of them had been around to receive it twelve years ago.

He eyes the three fancy-looking ice-creams with a little bit of envy, wondering what they must taste like, but he distracts himself from it by considering which carnival games they can play after the ceremony. Ventus, at the very least, would probably let him have a taste if he asked, but Sora doesn’t really want to do that. It’s _their_ prize, and if Sora wants to know how it’s like, he’ll just have to win it himself one day.

The vendor in charge of the ring toss booth almost drops what he’s holding when their entire group settles at the front, chatting excitedly amongst themselves as they figure out which other games they want to try next. Riku gives the guy enough munny to cover a dozen or so attempts as Sora and Roxas take note of who wants to try and who doesn’t, with Aqua forcing them into a quasi-orderly line to make things run more smoothly.

Sora sees Kairi hide a snicker at how the vendor’s expression falls deeper and deeper into despair with each of their attempts, which has him muffling his own laugh. At least three of them have gotten the maximum possible score already, with another half a dozen attempts already paid for; at this rate, they’re going to put all of Disney Town’s vendors out of business.

Well, aside from the _food_ vendors, that is, but Sora would argue that the statement still applies.

He eventually starts to feel a bit bad for them, though, so he strikes up a deal to only take one prize from each booth, even if he plays the game more than once. He’s more interested in figuring out the details of each game and trying his hand at getting a perfect score than accumulating rewards, anyway, so it’s a win-win.

The others adhere to this deal as well after some consideration, which works wonders towards making the vendors like them more. Plus, if they all got a prize _every single time_ they got a high score, they would end up needing a carriage _just_ for their rewards at the end of the night; not to mention the fact that getting them all to each of their homes at the end of the week would _suck_.

The skills they’ve cultivated during battle serve them incredibly well in pretty much all of the carnival games they come across, honestly. Sora and Axel have killer aim, Riku and Ventus have amazing dexterity, and Aqua’s fine control is unparalleled, though Isa does manage to oppose her somewhat.

Naminé chooses not to participate in most of the games, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t get any prizes; Vanitas and Rikuto win her over a dozen trinkets, as well as a handful of plushies, making her blush and coo at them with her arms full of stuffed animals.

Still, Sora would say that the day’s indisputable highlight is the strength test. They figure out in which order they’re going to play it before they even pay the vendor for all of their attempts, leaving the buffier amongst them -- Riku, Terra and Isa -- to try it last, arguing that they’ll probably have an unfair advantage or something. Even the thinnest of them still packs a pretty big punch, of course, but they all agree that it’s more fun this way.

Riku is the third to last to go. By the time his turn rolls around, none of them have managed to hit the highest score yet, but Sora has high hopes for his best friend. They each got two shots at it, so they’re not surprised when Riku uses the first one to test it out before the _real_ attempt.

Watching Riku ready himself for his second try leaves Sora all jittery; he’d probably be on the edge of his seat if he wasn’t standing. He shares expectant grins with Kairi and Ventus as they all wait for the moment of truth.

Riku takes a deep breath as he lifts the heavy hammer, then hits the sensor with a small grunt of effort, putting most of his not-inconsiderable weight into it. But the rest of it doesn’t go as they’d expected; instead of the hit being followed by the tinny sounds that lets them know the machine is processing it, it’s followed by a loud crash that makes many of the onlookers jump in surprise.

When Riku hurriedly pulls the hammer back, the damage to the machine becomes visible. Part of the sensor has caved in from the sheer force of the impact, leaving the machine utterly inoperable; this revelation is met with a heavy dose of incredulous silence as they all try to process what just happened.

“Holy shit, dude,” Axel breathes out, giving words to what everyone’s feeling at the moment. “You _broke the game, man!_ ”

Axel’s exclamation snaps them out of their shock all at once; from then on, it’s pandemonium.

Riku blinks in astonishment as everyone who’d been watching starts to scream and whistle at him. Their little display had caught the attention of most of the festival-goers in the plaza, so it’s not just their friends doing it, either; Sora sees more than a handful of Disney Town’s inhabitants let out a few good-natured catcalls as Riku blushes all the way up to the roots of his hair.

Sora and Kairi both run to his side to tease him even further, obviously, with the rest of their group joining them after a couple of seconds. Sora finds his reaction to all this sudden attention _adorable_ \-- Riku blushes and stammers uncontrollably for at least five full minutes, so caught up in his embarrassment that he doesn’t even bat Sora and Kairi away like he’d usually do.

Once things have settled down again, they make sure to pay the vendor for the damage, accepting Riku’s prize with a healthy amount of laughter.

After that, they decide it’s time to head back to the Castle since they all have class tomorrow morning. They find a few carriages waiting for them at the town’s entrance, courtesy of the Queen, though the royal herself is nowhere to be found. Aqua reasons that she’ll probably stay at the Festival until its official closing time -- Sora doesn’t find that hard to believe, given how devoted the Queen is to her projects.

On the way back, they debate amongst themselves if Riku just got lucky or if Terra and Isa could have broken the machine as well; though since by the time they arrive at the Castle, they still haven’t settled the matter, Sora thinks they probably never will. It’s still fun to discuss it, however -- especially since it makes Riku go all blushy again, even if this time around he maintains enough of his composure to insist that they stop talking about it.

They all end up going to bed early despite their plans to stay awake and hang out some more, seeing as everyone is exhausted from the day’s excitement. As Sora snuggles up to Riku in their massive plush bed, he can’t help but smile, already anticipating the next year’s Dream Festival.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Riku's heart is getting there, but they still have a few more hurdles to go through before everything smooths out >:3c  
> Y'all have no idea how glad I was to finally talk about some of the group-bonding stuff they've been doing! I've had a lot of that stuff ever since this idea first sprung up, so they've been kind of just lying in wait for the right time. I really love having them all hang out and stuff ❤️ Also, don't think that I've forgotten that I had Sora promise Axel to share the Sleeping Realm with everyone! I still remember, it's just. somewhat difficult to find a place to stick it in, lol. I tend to forget a lot of stuff while I'm caught up with writing, and then they all come hang out in the author's note. (hello!)  
> There's so much tasty group stuff to talk about.... Isa being the one to draw Axel's teardrop marks (in KH3 he did basically say he was the one to suggest them to Axel!), Axel refusing to go to Twilight Town without Roxas and Xion cause he'd be loooooooooonelyyyyyy (Sora gets him), Rikuto falling victim to someone's hair-dyeing prank (jokes' on them, he likes it!), Sora and Riku learning how to make jewelry (I have more Thots on this that will show up in a later chapter!), and so much more.  
> I'd wanted to finish writing this chapter on Tuesday, but then the 1k I wrote on it had been all Sora being tooth-rottingly gay (it was the racing part, to be specific), so I was forced to hurry to finish it today instead. While talking to my friends about the whole confessing stuff, I came across some very interesting thots that will definitely be a part of this fic's final chapter, so be sure to keep an eye out for it 👀  
> Vendors HATE them! The peeps that man the game booths see them approaching and they just start crying on the inside because they gain too many expensive prizes while paying too little money!!! It's unfair!!! Food vendors like them a bit more if only cause they get more money out of such a huge group, but still, lol. They do go and revisit their favorite rides and stuff, I just........ forgot to write it in because I was in such a hurry. They were also supposed to go to the ferris wheel near the end, as a nice unwinding moment, but again,,,,,,,,,, i forgot. I did say the stuff I forgot all comes hang out in the author's note!!!!  
> The moment I decided they were going to race, I knew I had to give Sora and Riku a motorbike. This ended up backfiring on me, because when I got to that part my brain went LKNDUIEJNLKMÇL,~Ç,L whenever I imagined both of them on it, so that was fun! But I'm still a hoe, so I did it anyway. I also immediately bowed out of choosing vehicles for everyone else, so I can only tell y'all that Roxas' is pretty similar to Ventus' keyblade glider, since it looks like a skateboard and that's what he's more comfortable with.  
> My bff accused everyone of holding back on the strength test, arguing that everyone's level 99, but I disgress, because it's more fun this way! This was also one of the things I had in mind ever since February (god, it's been nearly five months since I've started this fic) so it was very nice to be able to finally write it, lol.  
> To those of y'all who haven't seen it yet.... this fic now has an estimated amount of chapters right there at the header. I honestly can't believe that I'm so close to finishing it, I can't believe it's already been nearly five months!!! Oh god!!!! Oh my fucking god!!!! I'm gonna die!! Five months ago I didn't think I could write 40~50k in six months, and soon I'm gonna have written like 160k in that same amount of time, what the actual ever loving fuck!! I need to lay down for a bit. And then I'm probably gonna die. (but don't worry i'm gonna find someone to possess to finish this).  
> God, this fic is gonna be done by August 5th............................. my brain has 🅱️roke.


	22. Chapter 21

When Sora, Riku and Kairi make their way to Radiant Garden for their check-up on the following Saturday, Riku is still feeling vaguely dizzy from the week’s healing session. Sora takes one look at him -- swaying in place even as he tries his best not to -- and links their arms together, patiently guiding him into the Castle, up its many stairs and nondescript corridors until they finally reach the lab.

He’s so out of it that he might as well be astral-projecting onto his bed as Sora and Kairi discuss their observations with Ienzo, though his head does clear up a little when they direct him to sit at the heart-reading machine’s plush chair. His rising frustration at this new development in their situation also helps him keep himself aware of his surroundings, so he makes sure to hold said frustration close to his chest, sinking his nails into it to stop it from escaping.

“So, what’s wrong with me this time?” he asks once he feels he can pay attention to the answer.

Ienzo purses his lips thoughtfully, completing the scan of Riku’s heart with a few more keystrokes. “Your heart shows no sign of new damage,” he says, carefully studying the results. “But I do have a theory that could explain why you’re reverting to your previous levels of exhaustion after each recent session,” he adds, frowning as he flips through Riku’s old scans.

“Well, what is it?” Kairi prompts him after a couple of seconds of silence, failing to completely smother her impatience.

“We theorized in your first visit that, as his heart recovered, you’d be able to heal more of it each week. Subsequent visits have provided evidence that lines up with this idea, with Riku having rebuilt 8.5% of his heart in the past three weeks -- a full 2% more than it had in your last visit. However, a few weeks ago I started to wonder if we’d eventually reach a limit of some sort; a point in which his rate of recovery levelled off.

“You expend energy to rebuild your hearts, which is the reason why you feel tired after a healing session. Riku’s lingering exhaustion, thus, must mean that he’s using more energy than he has at his disposal, even though the rebuilding itself allows him to recover more of said energy.

“It would be safe to assume that the heart can only heal so much of itself in such an admittedly small amount of time; Riku may be very close to this limit -- or he might even have surpassed it entirely -- so his body is finding it difficult to keep up with the present rate of recovery, which in turn leaves him exhausted.”

“Okay, so...” Kairi says a moment later, working to decipher Ienzo’s words. “This means they need to start healing _less_? Since what they’re doing right now is too much for Riku to handle?”

“Either that, or give his body more time to recover from each session.”

“Which one would be better?” Sora frowns.

“It depends on how you wish to proceed. His heart is at 84% integrity at the moment; if you went back to healing a percent or so every week, it should get to 100% in about three months. If you did a session every two weeks, however, you might be able to somewhat push the limits and thus end up bringing his heart to its complete state sooner.”

Riku meets Sora’s questioning gaze with a small shrug. He knows he should care more about what they’re saying, or at least try to be more involved in decisions like these -- it’s _his_ heart that is on the line, after all -- but he finds that he can’t muster up the willpower to do so. Sora and Kairi will probably take his wellbeing and safety way more into consideration than he would himself, anyway, so it’s probably better to let _them_ choose what they’ll do next.

“How long until my heart is complete, again?” Sora asks Ienzo, though he keeps on watching Riku.

“Six weeks,” Ienzo replies promptly.

Sora and Kairi stare at each other for a handful of seconds, communicating without words. Riku can usually follow along, but everything is fuzzy around the edges, so he doesn’t even try.

Sora turns to face Ienzo. “If we decide to do every two weeks, how long do you think it’d take for him to get to 100%?”

“Again, it would depend on how far you are willing to go; but if you maintain the same rhythm of the past few weeks, it could take as little as two months.”

Sora nods, sharing yet another look with Kairi. “We’ll try that, then.”

“If that’s to be the case, then you should return here for your next visit a full month from now, rather than in three weeks,” Ienzo says, making a note on his gummi phone. “Let him rest on this following week so that you can do a session on the next, and be mindful of your limits.”

“Should we ask Aqua to supervise them again?” Kairi fidgets.

“I do not think it would be necessary, unless they’re trying to heal a bigger percentage than usual,” Ienzo tilts his head thoughtfully. “If they are, then it might be better to play it safe.”

“Got it,” Kairi smiles tightly.

“Oh, and before you go, I’d like to remind you of something else we discussed on your first visit,” Ienzo says suddenly, shoving his gummi phone back in his coat’s pocket. “We talked about how the two of you would probably be able to stay further apart the more of Riku’s heart you healed -- have you put this idea to the test?”

“Not really,” Riku shakes his head. Even now, Sora continues to stand firm in his decision to stay as close as possible to Riku, completely ignoring any inconvenience that this might cause him.

“Well, seeing as your heart is very nearly at the same integrity that Sora’s was when you first came here, I believe that the two of you could now stand an indefinite distance away from each other without any side-effects, other than perhaps a slight discomfort when the bond snaps shut,” Ienzo continues, completely unaware to the pit of despair that pops into existence in Riku’s stomach at the words.

He turns to watch Sora’s reaction to this -- trying his hardest to squash the part of him that dreads seeing excitement in his best friend’s face -- but Sora’s face remains neutral; the only sign he’s even heard it at all is a noncommittal hum.

“Thank you, Ienzo,” Kairi says once it‘s clear that Sora and Riku are both going to remain silent.

They leave the Castle not long after that, with Riku forcing down his exhaustion to make sure they get out of there as soon as possible. The world isn’t spinning quite as much by then, but Sora still insists on holding onto Riku’s forearm, just in case he gets dizzy again; Riku accepts it with no argument, quietly savoring the warmth of Sora’s hand and how this makes them stand close to each other as they walk.

Riku isn’t surprised to realize that Kairi is leading them to the Seventh Heaven. Given that the bar doesn’t open until evening, they can trust it to be quiet at this hour, and Tifa always seems genuinely happy to see them. Due to these factors, the bar has become their hang-out spot whenever they visit Radiant Garden. The members of the Restoration Committee also visit it quite often, with Aerith being a particularly obstinate repeat offender if the things Sora has heard -- and consequently told Riku -- are true.

It doesn’t take Riku very long to realize that Sora is hovering around him even more than usual, which is a truly impressive feat, considering how much of it he already does on a daily basis. Riku had grown used to this for the most part, his reaction to it growing duller as the weeks went by, but Ienzo’s words might as well shine a spotlight onto it all over again.

There’s a voice deep in his brain -- a venomous, _terrible_ one -- whispering to him that he should savor all of this closeness while he still can, since it now has a much more concrete expiry date than before. It never listens to rational thoughts; never even acknowledges the existence of any evidence to the contrary of whatever it has decided to tell him whenever it surfaces.

It grips him by the neck and leans in to deliver its venom straight into his jugular, no matter how much he struggles against it. Sometimes, he can stand up to it, surrounding himself with enough proof to force it to slink back underground, where it lurks until it perceives another weakness -- but he can already tell that he’s going to be fighting a losing battle this time around.

Riku _knows_ that Sora isn’t going to outright abandon him as soon as Ienzo declares his heart to be complete at last, but that fear still lingers inside his mind, pacing in its cage like a restless animal impatiently waiting for its next meal. Oh, but fear isn’t alone in that cage: there’s also the shame of needing so much of Sora’s time and attention; the last few dredges of the ugly jealousy that drove so many of his actions in the weeks after the Islands fell; the overpowering despair and sadness that bubble up whenever he imagines a life without Sora in any capacity.

They all stare fixedly at him, watching his every step, breath and thought with their eerie eyes while also making sure that they’re still shrouded in enough shadows so as not to be killed off by the occasional burst of sunlight.

Riku hadn’t realized just how much he and Sora had drifted apart in the years before the Islands fell until this issue with his heart forced them back together. They’ve always been close, of course, but Riku had stopped sharing his every thought and feeling with Sora some time before he turned thirteen; it’d taken Sora a few months until he stopped expecting Riku to meet him in the middle, then things just got... _worse_ over time.

Everything that’s happened since then has only made Sora more stubborn, however -- to the point in which if he sees Riku retreat into himself again, he follows and pushes until Riku either stops doing it or lets him in. Aggravating as it can be at times, Riku remains immensely grateful for it. He still finds it far too easy to get lost in negative thoughts, -- which consequently makes him pull back from everyone in a misguided attempt at self-preservation -- but Sora always manages to lead him back to the light.

 _He’ll get tired of it one day,_ the voice whispers in his ear, sinking its claws into his insecurities and refusing to let go. _Soon, he won’t have to spend every second with you anymore, and he’ll realize that his time is better spent with his other friends. What, you really think he’ll really want to travel the universe with **you** , when he has so many others he could do it with? Pfft, don’t make me laugh!_

Riku shakes his head with a huff at that, forcing himself to focus on the physical world instead. He’s still in the same spot that Sora and Kairi had left him at when they arrived, and a quick sweep of the building has him realizing that his two friends have headed to the counter to talk with Tifa. He finds Sora already glancing at him when Riku directs his gaze towards the three of them, then nods wordlessly at Sora’s questioning expression -- ‘you okay?’ it says, so loudly that Riku can almost hear it. Sora smiles widely at the action, but his attention is quickly redirected to Tifa when she says something Riku doesn’t quite hear.

He startles a bit upon noticing that Cloud is sitting at the same table as he is. The man’s expression is as neutral and impassive as always, but there’s a certain _look_ in his eyes that has Riku feeling unsettlingly vulnerable, like a prey that has glimpsed a predator standing nearby.

“They care a lot about you,” Cloud says suddenly, tilting his head in the counter’s direction just in case Riku doesn’t immediately realize who he’s talking about.

Riku exhales slowly, willing himself to ignore how weird this exchange is. “Yeah,” he replies once the silence has stretched on long enough so as to turn uncomfortable.

Cloud remains silent for another long beat, swirling his drink around its glass; Riku resists the urge to squirm under the weight of his stare.

“They see _something_ in you that’s worth it,” he continues at last, not bothering to specify what ‘it’ is. “Don’t you think it’s rude to just dismiss that right away?”

With that, Cloud knocks back the rest of his drink and stands up to head towards the counter, leaving a completely befuddled Riku in his wake.

It takes a few minutes of turning these words around in his head until Riku feels secure enough in his interpretation of them. Sometimes, when he gets too deep in a negativity spiral, a part of him will start to wonder why his friends even bother to stick around him, seeing as he _obviously_ doesn’t deserve to have friends as good as them. Cloud’s words had been a reminder that even if he can’t see any reason why Sora and Kairi would care so much about him, it doesn’t mean that there _isn’t_ one.

Riku abandons that line of thought when Kairi sits next to him, smiling back reflexively at the soft grin she gives him.

“I can almost see the steam coming out of your ears,” she tells him with a note of amusement, gently prying his fist open until she can lace their fingers together. “You okay?” she asks in a quieter voice, watching him intently.

Riku leans onto her with a small sigh, studying how small her hand is in his for a moment. “I’ll be alright,” he replies, knowing that there’s no point in pretending everything’s fine when he’s been so out of it for the entire day.

“That’s good,” she nods, squeezing his hand, then grins again. “Sora wanted to come and poke you until you either spilled your guts or stopped moping around, but I held him off this time -- you’re welcome, by the way.”

Riku snorts, noting how the sound makes some of the tension in Kairi’s shoulders melt away. “Thanks, Kai.”

“Sometimes you just gotta get it out of your system,” she shrugs, knocking her shoulder onto his arm, since Riku’s too tall for her to reach his shoulder.

“Yeah.”

“But also, as your best friend, I am obligated to remind you that you can always talk to us about anything and everything, got it?"

“Of course,” Riku smiles, though he can already tell that giving voice to this maelstrom inside of him will be worse than pulling teeth.

“Good,” Kairi nods resolutely.

Riku makes an effort to be more involved in what’s happening outside of his own mind after that, even if he still feels like someone has replaced his brain with a bunch of cotton balls. He joins his friends at the counter and listens as they talk to Tifa, butting in to make a quip when he notices an opening and laughing along with them when someone delivers an amusing remark.

Aerith and Leon take the stage when they arrive at the bar some time after lunch, which allows Riku to take more of a backseat in their interactions so as to rest for a bit. Sora and Kairi wordlessly decide that they’ll go back home earlier today than they have in all their previous visits, since Riku is visibly drooping -- Riku’s so tired that he can’t even muster up the energy to feel guilty about it, letting Sora lead him back to the gummi ship without a single complaint.

The rest of the day passes on haze. Hoshi coos worriedly at him when they get home, guiding him with gentle hands until he lays his head on her lap, then brushing his hair with her fingers until he falls asleep. He stirs when she and Sora switch places, but Sora knows all the spots in Riku’s scalp that make him go boneless, so he’s back asleep within seconds.

It’s evening by the time he wakes up again, feeling a lot more human now, though he also feels like something crawled into his mouth and died there. He smacks his tongue against the roof of his mouth a few times, trying to get rid of the foul taste, but it refuses to be dislodged.

“Hey there, sleepyhead,” Sora smiles at him, setting his gummi phone aside to sink his fingers into Riku’s hair again.

“What time is it?” Riku asks, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“Almost eight.”

Riku sits up with a groan; his body protests the action by letting out a lot of cracks and pops as his spine settles back into place.

“Ouch,” Sora says neutrally, his hand hovering over the space Riku’s head used to be for a moment before he picks his gummi phone back up.

“Didn’t hurt,” Riku assures him, swinging his head around a little to get rid of any lingering stiffness. “Sorry for keeping you locked in place for so long,” he mutters.

“I didn’t mind it,” Sora shrugs, his lips curling into an easy grin. “I took _so_ many pictures of your dorky sleeping face!”

Sora catches the pillow that Riku throws at his face with a laugh, shoving it behind his back so Riku can’t grab it again.

“Jerk,” Riku huffs, smiling despite himself.

“You snooze you lose, Riku, you know this!”

“I’ll get back at you, just you wait.”

Sora lets out another laugh, pulling one of his legs close to his chest. He catches Riku’s yawn, then gives him a reproachful look that has Riku snorting as he rubs his face.

“Feeling better?” Sora asks in a softer voice after a few seconds of silence. It feels like his too-blue eyes are trying to peer straight into Riku’s soul, but Riku refuses to turn away from his stare.

“Yeah,” he replies, sinking into the sofa’s cushions with a sigh. “Most of the daze is gone. Where’s Mom?”

“In her room, I think,” Sora frowns slightly, briefly directing his gaze upwards. “She told me to let her know when you woke up.”

“Do you wanna go there now?”

“Maybe in a sec?” Sora suggests quietly, tracing the edges of his gummi phone. “I wanted to ask if you’re really okay. I know you’ve been out of it today because of the healing session a few days ago, but you were still acting kinda weird back at Radiant Garden.”

Riku exhales slowly, using the couple of seconds this gives him to come up with a response that won’t immediately set off a handful of alarms in Sora’s head; he _knew_ this question was coming, but that doesn’t make answering it any easier.

“Just feeling anxious,” Riku replies, staring fixedly at his lap.

Sora scoots closer, pressing their arms together much like Kairi had done a few hours earlier. “About the rest of the healing?”

“Yeah,” Riku nods, letting Sora assume that he’s worried about how the next couple of sessions will go instead of correcting him by saying that he’s scared about what will happen _afterwards_.

The best lies always have a kernel of truth in them, after all.

“We’ll be alright,” Sora states firmly. “We’ll be careful, and then before we know it, we’ll be done!”

“Mhm,” Riku hums, forcing his lips to form a brittle smile. Sora squeezes himself into the space between Riku’s arm and his torso, holding him determinedly, as if a tight enough hug will expel the anxiety from Riku’s body.

God, he wishes that was the case; he truly does.

The three of them order takeout for dinner, filling themselves up with deliciously greasy pizza as they watch TV. It’s nice and familiar in a way that should be relaxing, but Riku can still feel the venomous voice circling him even if he can’t hear it, which leaves him too high-strung to fully enjoy the moment.

When he starts to feel drowsy again just half an hour after dinner, he’s unable to contain the sharp spike of annoyance that springs forth in its wake. Uncertain as he is about what the future has in store for him and Sora regarding this entire thing with their hearts, he _definitely_ won’t miss the exhaustion once they’re back at 100%. He knows he shouldn’t curse his body for needing to rest, but it’s not even 10 p.m., he napped for _four hours_ , and he hasn’t completed this week’s homework! Yet despite all that, he’s still unable to even imagine staying up for another hour.

“I’m gonna head to bed,” he declares after some consideration, unintentionally interrupting the conversation Sora and Hoshi had been having. Both of them look at him in surprise as he stands up, with Hoshi’s expression also holding a tinge of sympathy.

“Oh, okay!” Sora exclaims, standing up as well and hurrying to finish the story he’d been telling Hoshi.

Riku nearly tells him right there that he doesn’t have to come with if he still wants to stay downstairs, but he swallows it back down when Sora beams at him. Hoshi shoos them away when Riku starts to pile up their plates on the coffee table, insisting that she’ll take care of it, so Riku kisses her cheek good night and makes his way upstairs with Sora following him as faithfully as his shadow.

They take turns in the bathroom as usual. Sora appears to be completely at ease, but something about the way in which he had just _followed_ without question chafes at Riku, giving strength to the sentence he’d forced down until it’s sitting at the tip of his tongue again. The silence between them that used to be so comfortable feels stifling now, rubbing against Riku’s skin in all of the wrong ways.

“You can head back downstairs if you want to,” Riku blurts out once he can’t take it anymore, breathing hard from the effort of keeping himself in check. “It’s early; I know you’re not tired yet and Ienzo told us that it should be completely fine to stay apart, right? You don’t have to follow me everywhere anymore; it’s alright.”

“I know it is,” Sora frowns, looking somewhat hurt for half a second. “Do you _want_ me to stop following you?” he asks tentatively, rooting Riku in place with his infinitely blue eyes yet again.

Riku resists the urge to squirm as he thinks about how honest he wants to be. Sora doesn’t look away from him even _once_ , waiting for Riku’s answer with a patience that he rarely deigns to display in life.

“Not really,” he whispers, looking away in an attempt to curb the embarrassment that bubbles up in his chest at the admission and wishing for a split second that he could still hide his face from the rest of the world with an overly-long fringe.

From the corner of his eyes, Riku sees Sora nod resolutely. “Then I won’t,” he says, as if it’s that simple; as if Riku’s answer is all he needs to consider to make his decision.

Riku wants to argue; he wants to ask if Sora isn’t tired of having to consider him every time he wants to spend time with his friends or do literally _anything else_ ; if he doesn’t miss the freedom of being able to go wherever he wants whenever he wants, but he already knows how Sora will respond to that. At any other instance, he would have welcomed the reassurances that Sora could give him, but right now he’s too deep underwater for them to be of any help.

He lets Sora think that that’s the end of this issue and continues to get ready for bed, accepting Sora’s familiar weight by his side with the ease of practice. The other will probably spend a few hours messing around with his gummi phone before he falls asleep, but Riku’s used to that too by now; the soft light that spills from the small screen is a comfort instead of a bother.

He thinks about reminding Sora that Rikuto will be coming by tomorrow afternoon to pay another visit to the hair salon, but he quickly decides against it. If Sora stays up too late and ends up oversleeping, Riku will at least have the pleasure of pestering him awake and laughing as Sora groans his displeasure for the whole house to hear.

With that last thought, he stops fighting against his exhaustion, letting it drag him into a dreamless sleep.

x

Sora and Riku wait for Rikuto at the Main Island’s dock at Kairi’s behest. She’d promised to go shopping with her mom a week ago, which meant she wouldn’t be around to keep an eye on Vanitas in case he came as well, so she had recruited them to do so in her stead. Hoshi had wanted to accompany them to the hair salon, but she couldn’t find anyone to swap shifts with at the hospital, so it’d be just Sora, Riku, and whoever came alongside Rikuto.

Riku isn’t shocked to see that Vanitas had decided to come, but he _is_ a bit surprised to discover that Naminé _hadn’t_. Sora waves at their approaching boat with his usual enthusiasm, undeterred by the lack of response -- Rikuto doesn’t because he’s busy rowing, and Vanitas doesn’t because he’s just, well, _Vanitas_.

“Have you decided on a color yet? How much of it are you gonna dye?” Sora asks as soon as Rikuto steps out of the boat, forgetting to even say hello in the midst of his excitement.

Rikuto barely bats an eye at the rapidfire questions, sharing a mildly exasperated glance with Riku as his lips curl into a small grin. This little, wordless exchange makes Riku keenly aware of the fact that Rikuto also has a lifetime’s worth of memories of Sora to fall back on, even if he doesn’t use them much these days.

“Just the ends, I think,” Rikuto replies, rolling a few strands of his hair between his fingers. “And I haven’t decided yet, but Naminé thinks a purple of some sort will look nice.”

“I agree with her!” Sora grins, bouncing in place. “I thought she and Ven would come with you guys,” he remarks in a calmer tone, tilting his head slightly.

“She had some stuff she wanted to do, so I convinced her it was fine for her to stay,” Rikuto shrugs, standing in one fluid motion once he finishes tying his borrowed boat to the dock.

“As for Venty-Wenty and his loser friends, it seems like they finally trust us not to go on a rampage or something if they aren’t there to supervise us,” Vanitas adds in a derisive tone, smirking menacingly as if to highlight how stupid he thinks that is.

Rikuto throws his friend a warning glare, but Vanitas’ only reaction to it is amusement. Riku clears his throat before either of them can say anything else, gesturing towards the rest of the island once he has their attention.

“Shall we?” he suggests.

Rikuto holds Vanitas by the wrist when he attempts to split from their group some time later, uncaring of the frightful scowl this earns him. “You came here to accompany me, so you’re gonna goddamn _accompany_ me,” Rikuto tells Vanitas stonily, pulling him back to his side despite Vanitas’ protests. “I’m not gonna let you go around on your own to prank someone again.”

“Fuck you,” Vanitas huffs disgruntedly. Rikuto only releases his wrist when he falls back into step with them; Riku and Sora let out twin sighs of relief, equally glad that Rikuto had managed to take care of the issue so quickly.

The hair stylist they’d met the previous week -- Miharu -- jumps to her feet with a wide smile when she sees them approaching, hastily putting away the magazine she’d been flipping through. The rest of the building is filled with the chit-chat of the salon’s faithful weekend patrons, but Miharu’s corner is blissfully free of gossiping ladies, which is part of why they chose her in the first place.

“Hey there!” she greets the four of them, directing Rikuto to the plush chair in front of the mirror and the others to the sofa next to her station with a broad gesture. “Didn’t I tell you you’d come back here to dye it for real?” she asks Rikuto with a grin, chuckling when he snorts.

“You _did_ say so.”

“You just had that look in your eyes,” she clicks her tongue, straightening out her tools cheerfully. “So, what’s it gonna be? Do you want to dye it all at once, or just some of it?”

“The latter,” Rikuto replies, brushing his hair with his fingers. “I was thinking about some dip-dyed kinda thing.”

“Ooh, that’d be interesting,” Miharu hums appraisingly, stepping closer to study Rikuto’s silver hair. “What color? A dark one would stand out really nicely.”

“Purple.”

“Good choice. Do you want the color to start at the same length for all your hair, or would you prefer a messier look?”

“Messier,” Rikuto responds with great confidence.

“Alright,” Miharu nods, setting out the products she’ll use. “Will you want to cut it? Just so I know where to start coloring.”

Rikuto hums, pulling on a few strands from his bangs. “I like its current length, but a trim wouldn’t hurt.”

“You’re so lucky that your hair doesn’t need bleaching, kiddo,” Miharu shakes her head, putting on her gloves as Rikuto hums in amusement. “What about the rest of you?” she asks suddenly, shooting Sora, Riku and Vanitas a playful grin. “Can I tempt any of you with a few treatments, perhaps?”

Sora laughs from where he’s sitting next to Riku. “I’m fine with my hair as it is, thanks!” he replies, clearly enjoying the hair stylist’s upbeat personality.

Miharu glances at Riku. “What about you-- Riku, right? Any chance of you following your little brother’s example?”

“Cousin,” Rikuto corrects without missing a beat, prompting Miharu to let out a quick apology for the mistake.

“Thank you, but I can’t really see myself with colored hair,” Riku smiles, with Sora nodding his emphatic agreement.

“You’ll never know unless you try it,” the stylist sing-songs, leading Rikuto to the washing station. “Still, that’s quite alright,” she smiles good-naturedly. Vanitas grunts sullenly when she turns her gaze to him, which makes her raise her eyebrows with a grin. “Oooh, grumpy.”

“You don’t know the _half_ of it,” Rikuto rolls his eyes, not even deigning to glance at the middle finger Vanitas flashes in his direction. “He’s insufferable.”

“Says the arrogant bastard,” Vanitas fires back without even pausing to think about it. This little exchange shows all the signs of having happened countless times before, which has all three of its on-lookers stifling laughter.

Miharu keeps up a constant stream of chatter as she dyes Rikuto’s hair with deft fingers, making sure to involve Sora and Riku in it as well. She’s easy to talk to and never mentions the rumours she’s _certainly_ heard about them, which only makes them like her that much more.

Riku’s actually a bit surprised when she announces that she’s done, seeing as it feels like no time has passed at all. The floor around the two of them is littered with snips of dark purple hair, with the occasional silver strands thrown in.

“So, how do you like it? The color is going to get brighter than this after you wash it a couple times.”

“It looks really nice,” Rikuto smiles, turning his head around a few times to study her handiwork.

“It’s _so_ cool!” Sora enthuses, standing up to take a closer look of it too. “It really suits you!!”

Rikuto’s smile becomes softer at that. “Thanks, Sora,” he says; Sora outright beams at the words, bouncing on the balls of his feet with unabashed excitement.

Miharu lists the things he should do to keep the color from fading, writing the name and brand of the hair products he should buy in a small slip of paper when Rikuto asks her to. After Rikuto hands her the payment for the procedure, she glances at Sora, Riku and Vanitas again, trying to tempt them into doing something fancy to their hairs one last time.

Rikuto stares right at Vanitas as she does so, raising his eyebrows in an impertinent way that used to drive Sora and Kairi _mad_ whenever Riku did it. Vanitas glowers back at him, settling deeper into the loveseat’s cushions in defiance.

“God, stop moping around and just admit you want to do it too, Vanitas,” Rikuto rolls his eyes exasperatedly. “Don’t think I didn’t see you staring at what she was doing the _entire time_ , because I sure did.”

“Fuck off,” Vanitas spits back venomously, but he’s unable to keep the note of sullenness fully out of his voice. “Who says I wanna do this shit?”

Rikuto stares even harder at him for it, putting on an ever-suffering air that has Vanitas positively _fuming_. “Just sit on the damn chair, Vanitas,” he says in a no-nonsense tone.

It takes half a minute and a _lot_ of grumbling, but Vanitas does eventually make his way to the barber’s chair, hissing threateningly at Sora and Riku when they fail to contain their grins.

Vanitas’ hair takes considerably longer to dye than Rikuto’s had -- a fact that makes Vanitas even grumpier than he already is by default. He watches Miharu mix the dye she’ll use in his hair with curiosity, asking a few questions about the process that she’s all too happy to answer.

A couple of hours have passed by the time she’s done with Vanitas’ hair, which is now littered with deep red streaks at irregular intervals. He appraises her work with a critical eye, muttering a nearly inaudible word of thanks once he decides he’s satisfied with it.

Miharu accompanies them to the door when they get ready to leave, waving at all four of them with a pleased smile as they start to make their way back to the dock. “Do come by again if you decide to do anything else!” 

“Thanks, we will!” Rikuto waves back. Vanitas lifts one of his hands and waves it _once_ , making the rest of them snort.

“Don’t forget to send me a picture of your hair when you get home, or else Mom is gonna pester me for _days_ ,” Riku tells Rikuto in an amused tone as they approach the small dock.

“Will do,” Rikuto grins. “Do you think Ma-- Aiko would want one of Vanitas? I can try to get one for her.”

“ _Hey!_ ” Vanitas protests.

“Oh, she absolutely would,” Sora assures him, then lowers his voice to a stage whisper: “Maybe have Naminé take it? He wouldn’t be able to say no to _her_.”

“Fuck you!” Vanitas scowls.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Rikuto laughs, climbing onto his borrowed boat with the ease of someone who has done it a thousand times before. “We’ll see you guys tomorrow, then?”

“You bet!” Sora nods, folding his hands behind his head.

“Right, then. Thanks for going to the salon with us,” Rikuto tells them, pushing away from the dock with a small smile.

“Anytime,” Riku shrugs slightly. “It was entertaining, at least.”

Rikuto snorts at that, waving at them a few times before he directs his full attention to rowing. Sora keeps on waving until they’re only small splotches of color above the water, turning to Riku with relaxed shoulders and a satisfied smile once he gets tired of it.

“Ready to go back home?”

“Yeah,” Riku says, reaching out to ruffle Sora’s hair just ‘cause he feels like it. “We still have to finish our homework, after all.”

“ _Blergh_ ,” Sora complains dramatically, though his smile is proof that he doesn’t really mind it that much.

They talk about the previous week’s classes all the way to Hoshi’s house, letting the setting sun warm their backs as they do so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all thought we'd seen the last of Riku's anxiety? If so, think again!! [pats Riku's shoulder] this boy can hold SO MUCH anxiety inside of him!  
> Riight now, he isn't at a place where Sora's prodding or reassurance would do any good, and that's entirely valid, I think. It sucks, and it'll get worse before it gets better, but it _does_ get better! For all that they know each other super well, they can still fall prey to assumptions and redirections. Sora ends up taking Riku's statements at face value, and Riku just lets him do that, because like he said, the best lies have kernels of truth in them.  
> It was fun to have Cloud be the one to kind of snap Riku out of it for a bit there, since he's probably pretty familiar with the overthinking that leads to drawing back from friends in a misguided attempt at protecting them/yourself. Cloud's been there and done that, and though he doesn't know Riku very well he still can't stay fully silent while he watches him go through something similar (again).  
> Ok, listen. I know that most of the number/scientific stuff probably goes right over y'all's head but I love doing it, ok? I'm a spreadsheet bitch and I have their whooooole healing mapped out in a nice graph and all, I have the full timeline with DATES put in, I have estimate of how long the fic will be considering the average word count of posted chapters so far (it currently says 170k but the last chapter will probably be a Moster so we'll see) and I have a goddamn, fucking little list of which house they're staying at in the Islands at the week relevant to the chapter cause I said they switch every 3 days AT THE START OF THE FIC and goddamn it, I'm sticking with that bullshit 😤  
> Oh and by the way, I had a fucking dumb of ass moment and I miscounted how many chapters were left. I put it in here before that it'd have 25, but then I actually listed out the things I still had to write and realized I had WAY TOO MUCH stuff for 4 chapters, and of _course_ that was the case, cause there was supposed to be 5! So, I changed it to 26 now — 3 more chapters and an epilogue.  
> While writing the last part of this chapter, with Sora and Rikuto interacting more, I ended up consdering whether Rikuto would have a crush on Sora like Riku did at that age, since they have most of the same memories, but I came to the conclusion that he wouldn't. I subscribe to that Necklace Theory that is pretty popular in the soriku fandom, which says that Riku gave Sora the crown necklace in the night of the meteor shower (the one that brought Kairi) and promised to protect him then, and that when fiddling with Rikuto's memories to make him devoted to _her_ , Naminé made Riku promise that to her instead.  
> So, all the devotion that Riku had aimed at Sora, Rikuto has aimed at Naminé, which makes him have, like, a pre-installed crush on her when he's created (which, let me tell you, it's a hilarious sentence to say). And now, this is My Opinion and it has no real impact on the fic because I decided early on that it'd have no ships other than soriku so that people could imagine what they want, but for me, all Rikus are gay and so Rikuto will eventually fall out of that and, who knows, maybe find something with Vanitas instead 👀 (I'm a consumate monoshipper, but Vanitas and Rikuto are basically Sora and Riku with different color and slightly different personalities, so I think that's how this interest got past my filters lol). Partners in bastardry! They're such trash children, I love them.


	23. Chapter 22

The next two weeks are as uneventful as can be expected -- which is to say, _not at all_.

Sora convinces everyone to stay one extra night at Disney Town the week after he, Riku and Kairi visit Radiant Garden so as to finally fulfill his promise to give the others access to the Sleeping Realm. It’s… _chaotic_ to take so many people with them on a dive, to say the least -- only Naminé and Isa had been left out, since they don’t have keyblades to unlock the Sleeping Worlds -- but Sora still greatly enjoys showing his friends around, as well as seeing what Spirits each of them works best with.

Sora starts to get a feel of what it was like for his parents to raise him and Riku as he watches everyone run around decimating Nightmares and ricochetting on walls as if gravity had given up on forcing them to listen to it. He shares plenty of exasperated glances and little sighs with Riku, though he’s also way quicker to shrug it off and join in the fun than Riku is -- which only makes Riku sigh at _him_ instead.

It’s also funny to see his friends flee when they realize they’ve gotten the attention of a Nightmare that is too strong for them to defeat even with their considerable numbers. Whenever that happens, Sora, Riku and Kairi step up in their stead, taking the opportunity to show off the skills they’ve cultivated so far with wide grins.

The Sleeping Realm has done wonders for Kairi’s confidence in the months since they gave her access to it. It’s a joy to see how far she’s come now that she can put her theoretical knowledge to the test without the threat of _death_ hanging over her head; even if she _does_ get in over her head in a fight, Sora and Riku are always there to bail her out with a few well-aimed strikes and spells.

This time around, Kairi laughs _with_ the two of them when the others get confused over the music that always follows them no matter what they do, as well as when they all get to the snowy part of Riku’s Symphony of Sorcery and the _others_ complain about the frigid wind that originates from it. She almost rolls down a hill due to how hard she’s laughing when faced with the their friends’ disbelief at the idea that it’s _all in their heads_ , which in turn makes it hard for Sora and Riku to contain their own chuckles.

They have even more fun in the Opera House’s stage now than in their previous visits, since there’s more people to join in the silly performances Sora and Ventus insist on doing. Ventus nearly gets his hand bitten off by Vanitas when he tries to get his sullen counterpart to participate as well: Vanitas’ resulting glower is so fierce that Sora wonders for a moment if his lookalike could somehow summon a Nightmare to do his bidding instead of having to stick with colorful Spirits like the rest of them.

He gets a lot of little knowing _looks_ from Kairi whenever he spaces out staring at Riku, but it’s not like he can really help it; Riku looks so _good_ in the Sleeping Realm; so _healthy_ \-- he has no doubt that the real Riku will look even better once they finally finish healing his heart, but that’s still more than a month away, so Sora will continue to appreciate the Sleeping Realm version of him in the meantime.

Riku always blushes the _prettiest_ shade of pink whenever he catches Sora looking at him, too, which certainly doesn’t hurt. Sora wants to kiss him absolutely _silly_ , but he’s gotten used to the urge at this point, so he just beams and keeps on staring.

Sora would really like to go flying around in his side of the Symphony of Sorcery again, but unfortunately, there’s way too many of them and not nearly enough winged dream eaters to carry them all. There’s still heaps of fun to be had in the Fields, though, so it’s not a complete bust; the area is big enough for them to have a few interesting races, at the very least.

He catches a few heavy frowns and confused glances from Riku every now and then, especially when he runs to keep up with him or when he abandons something he was doing to follow Riku, but his best friend stubbornly refuses to divulge what’s bothering him. Sora has a pretty good guess as to what it is, of course, but he thought they’d had this talk already; Riku had said he didn’t really want Sora to move away, and _Sora_ doesn’t want to stop following either, so he doesn’t get why Riku keeps expecting him to do it.

Some time ago, Kairi had given him a long lecture on allowing bad feelings to be _felt_ before he went poking around to snap Riku out of it, however, so he’s giving that a shot. Plus, he and Riku have _talked_ about this before; he has to let Riku come to him at his own time, or else it’ll seem like he doesn’t trust him to do so.

Thus, he makes sure to smile whenever he notices Riku frowning at him, hoping that it’ll make him look more approachable or something of the sort. The wait chafes at him a bit, sure, but Kairi had gone to great lengths to emphasize its importance, so he’ll do his best to be patient.

It’s easier to be patient when he’s distracted, though, so he begs and pleads until Riku agrees to go to the Prankster’s Paradise. He laughs when everyone scatters as soon as they touch the ground in that world, watching as they head towards the various rides and carnival games -- all of it working without a single soul to control them, thanks to dream magic.

It takes a fair amount of wheedling, but Riku also agrees to climb onto the red tower near the edge of the amusement park. The cheerful music is still as present around them as it had been at ground level, but there’s something about the breeze blowing in from the sea further ahead that makes everything seem more peaceful. The moon is permanently full, and although the stars twinkle merrily, the sky never moves to show the passage of time; all of this could have made it very boring to stargaze, but Sora ropes Riku into making up constellations and they have a good time either way.

Riku laughs uproariously like the _jerk_ he is when Meowjesty materializes right next to them, nearly headbutting Sora off of the tower in its determined pursuit of pettings. A whispered command at the Spirit’s ear has Meowjesty literally jumping onto Riku, however, so Sora would argue that _he_ got the last laugh in that exchange -- even though it resulted in all of their other dream eaters appearing as well, having realized that a petting session was underway.

Most of them are reluctant to put an end to their visit considering how fun and refreshing it’s been, but they do eventually make their way back to the real world. Naminé is a bit spooked to see all eleven of them wake up at once, but she laughs it off easily enough, setting her sketchpad aside to pay attention to the exciting stories they all have to tell.

Sora is a little surprised to discover that _no one_ woke up with scribbles on their faces, but he’s also not about to look at a gift horse in the mouth, so he keeps quiet about it.

Classes are going well despite everyone’s workload, which is definitely nice, but _unfortunately_ , so is the Prank War. Riku notes one night that it seems like the participants have decided to team up in order to pull off more ambitious pranks against common enemies; moreover, Xion and Naminé had gotten roped into it as well, which left only Sora and Riku still completely out of it.

Xion had caved in after Axel’s pranks hit her by accident one too many times, teaming up with Isa to fill Axel’s bedroom in their house to the absolute _brim_ with packing peanuts, thus rendering the room unusable. They had made a video of the outcome, too; Axel’s reaction upon opening the door to his bedroom and having a literal mountain of packing peanuts spill out had been complete disbelief, followed by a heavy dose of exasperation with a tinge of respect after the initial complaints, of course.

Kairi laughed at it until she was almost purple in the face, zooming into Axel’s slumped shoulders like this was the funniest thing she’d ever seen in her life. It was made even more hilarious by the fact that Axel had simply waddled forward to find his bed and collapse onto it, flipping off a laughing Isa as he snuggled into his peanut-covered sheets.

Axel was one of the most prolific participants of the war, though the number of pranks he’d been caught in easily rivalled the number of pranks he’d done himself. His tendency to craft wide-ranging pranks -- that usually hit more than one person at a time -- made him a popular target for revenge pranks, after all; on the other hand, he had more free time than most of them did, which allowed him to come up with more and more outrageous ideas while everyone else was busy with class or homework.

Naminé’s prank absolutely takes the cake for the most savage, however; Sora honestly thinks that no one will be able to top it off, even if the Prank War goes on for _years_.

It had been completely unexpected, of course, though Sora can see the steps leading up to it in hindsight. He’s pretty sure that it all started when Axel planted a prank in the room she and Vanitas usually painted at -- one that went off only when something brushed against it, set inconspicuously by the sink Naminé and Vanitas used to rinse out their brushes.

It had exploded upon contact -- as Axel’s pranks tended to do -- and splattered blue-green goop _everywhere_. By mere chance, Vanitas had put his easel closer to the sink that day; close enough that his newly-finished painting was utterly ruined by the substance. Naminé tried to salvage it, but chipping away at the quickly-drying goop had only served to damage the canvas even more, so she was eventually forced to admit defeat and toss the entire thing out.

Vanitas had obviously enacted his own revenge, leaving a downright nasty surprise in Axel and Isa’s bathroom when he _knew_ Axel would be the next one to shower, and thus forcing Isa to sleep in the common room for the rest of the week to escape the resulting smell. Riku had offered him the spare bed in his and Sora’s bedroom -- the couches and pillows in the common room were amazing, but they were no substitute for a real _bed_ \-- but Isa had graciously refused it with a twinkle in his eyes that had both boys blushing.

Everyone thought that the matter had been put to rest at that point, but Naminé wasn’t about to let Axel off the hook so easily. Again, it made perfect sense in hindsight: she’d confided to some of them that Vanitas had seemed particularly proud of the painting that had been damaged, which made its loss sting that much more. Sora guessed that since she hadn’t been able to salvage it, she decided to move on to retribution instead -- she couldn’t bring it back, but she _could_ make Axel pay for having ruined it in the first place.

Naminé was so quiet and innocent-looking that most of them outright dismissed the idea of her ever being a threat, _especially_ in regards to the Prank War, and that was Axel’s fatal mistake. Quiet or not, she had still managed to become close friends with two of the most destructive participants of the war, after all -- a bright red flag that everyone ignored until it was too late.

The deed happens in Axel and Isa’s bedroom at the Disney Castle, so Isa is the one to recount the sequence of events. He does so with great relish, letting his mouth curl into a small smirk at the experience of being the recipient of nearly a dozen teenagers’ undivided attention.

It went on like this: Isa had been lounging in bed, reading a book he’d gotten from the library, when Axel decided it was time for a shower. So far, so good; Axel took an eternity in the bathroom like he always did, but Isa had grown used to working around that fact ages ago, so it barely even registered anymore.

On that particular day, Axel had forgotten to bring a change of clothes with him to the bathroom, which turned out to be quite serendipitous considering what happened next -- even if Isa wanted to strangle him for leaving water all over the floor _again_. He’d made a beeline to his dresser, throwing a playful smirk over his shoulder as a response to Isa’s annoyed huff.

It’d happened in the blink of an eye, in less than a second; Axel pulled the drawer open and the contraption that had been lying in wait inside exploded outwards with a hollow sound, covering everything in a two meters radius with a layer of _very_ fine glitter.

Most of them are unable to stop themselves from snickering when Isa describes how Axel’s next exhale had re-lifted a small cloud of glitter, which was then followed by a fit of coughs that only made even more of a mess. Isa had performed a rudimentary Cure spell -- at a safe distance, of course -- once it’d went on long enough, reasoning that the particles must have been irritating Axel’s airways, which finally put a stop to the fit.

He’d watched as Axel brushed a hand over his arm with a face of _glittery_ distaste, then snorted when this only made the particles settle onto Axel’s skin even further, with the process being helped along by the fact that he was still damp from the shower. The path from the bathroom to his dresser, which was already dotted with water, got a nice coat of glitter as well when Axel decided that the best way to deal with all this was to dump yet more water onto himself.

Naminé had admitted to being the culprit with her head held high, accepting the astonished stares this earned her without flinching. She’d expressed a _tiniest_ bit of regret over hearing that Axel had needed a Cure because of it -- everyone’s pranks were meant to annoy and inconvenience, after all, not do any real hurt -- but her expression has smoothed back into impassiveness after making sure that Axel had sustained no lasting injury over it.

“He’s going to be finding glitter on him for the rest of his life,” Aqua had grimaced, sounding like she spoke from personal experience. Naminé nodded resolutely, reiterating that that was the point.

When Axel finally graced them with his presence, Roxas and Vanitas took one look at the glitter still clinging stubbornly to his skin despite the extra hour he’d spent in the shower and promptly fell into a laughing fit that lasted for a good half hour, with their hysteria being renewed every time they glanced at the disgruntled man.

Rikuto had stifled his own chuckles to walk right up to Axel and promise him -- in a deceptively cheery voice -- that if he tried to get back at Naminé for this, he and Vanitas would do their absolute _worst_ to make his life hell. They spent a minute locked in a heated stare-off, but Axel eventually shrugged in what seemed like agreement, so that’d been the end of that.

The rest of the school week had been utterly boring in comparison to the excitement of that day, which was probably for the best, even if it left Sora somewhat disappointed. The weekend held promise, however, seeing as Aqua and Terra had scheduled a visit to the Mysterious Tower to have a more in-depth look at Yen Sid’s library in search for more content to use in their keyblade history class; and everyone still remembered how chaotic their last group visit had been.

Sora’s very pleased to note that the week’s healing session had gone on without a hitch; Riku had woken up on Thursday morning completely refreshed, without a single hint of that pesky exhaustion lingering at the corners of his eyes or in the heaviness of his limbs. It made Sora -- _and_ Kairi -- feel more secure in his decision to hold the sessions every other week, and also more optimistic about how the next few weeks would go.

He’s really hoping that they’ll be able to finish healing Riku’s heart within the two months Ienzo had predicted, especially since his own heart only has about four more weeks to go before it’s complete again. He wants Riku to be back at full health; wants to see his best friend participating in the classes he’s been sitting out on so far, finally enjoying himself like the rest of them.

Sora is still fairly displeased about how he and Riku have never really had the chance to figure out how well they can work together after getting their keyblades. They’ve fought together a few times, sure, in The World That Never Was and at the Keyblade Graveyard, but they’d been fighting desperately for their lives in both instances, so there wasn’t any time to try and discover new ways of combining their skill sets.

Back then, they’d relied on their past experience of fighting on the Islands and in their trust for each other, taking every opening the enemy gave them to the best of their ability to make sure that they both came out of the battle alive -- which, frankly, didn’t leave much room for experimentation. Sora’s been having so much fun discovering new combo moves to do with Kairi, Roxas and Ventus that he can barely wait for when he can _finally_ do the same with Riku.

It’s still six weeks away at the earliest, however, so Sora prefers not to dwell on it too much just yet. There’s plenty of stuff to distract himself with in the meantime, too, which thankfully makes not thinking about it all the easier.

One such distraction has him dragging Riku to what has become his favorite arts & crafts stores at the Islands on a sunny Friday, grinning unapologetically at his best friend’s practiced exasperation.

“I thought you had enough yarn for Kairi’s scarf already?” Riku asks him with a raised eyebrow.

“I do,” Sora replies. Riku’s hand bumps his arm as they walk, which makes it incredibly tempting for Sora to lace their fingers together, but he resists the urge. “We’re going there to hunt for materials for _another_ project.”

Riku huffs amusedly, reaching up to ruffle Sora’s spiky hair. “You and your projects,” he says, aiming for vaguely aggravated and landing on disgustingly fond instead. “What’s this one about?”

“Well, do you remember the camp necklaces from Percy Jackson? The ones that got a bead added to it for every summer they spent at the Half-Blood Camp?”

“Yeah,” Riku answers somewhat cautiously, wrinkling his nose a bit. “Are you gonna try to do something like that?”

“Sort of,” Sora shrugs. “I mean, reproducing the idea itself wouldn’t really work, since we’ve all had different experiences outside our smaller groups; but I like the idea of everyone sharing a thing like that, you know? So when we watched that movie that had that one group of friends wearing matching bracelets, I figured we could do something similar!”

Riku hums. “Not all of them would accept to wear something like that, though.”

“I know, and that’s why we’re doing colored beads instead of, like, charms and stuff,” Sora waves a hand dismissively. “I don’t want it to be just pretty, either-- I want it to be meaningful to everyone, y’know?”

“Of course,” Riku replies with a sweet half-smile that does _things_ to Sora’s heart. “So, bracelets, or something else?”

“Bracelets,” Sora nods firmly. “I’ve been kinda thinking about assigning a color to every one of us -- do you think we could pull that off?”

“Hmmm,” Riku frowns, taping his chin a few times. “If we find the right design, sure.”

Sora sighs in bliss once they reach the store, glad to finally be out of the unbearable heat. At this hour of the afternoon, the sun hits their backs at full force if they’re heading downtown, and there isn’t much of a breeze going around due to all the buildings surrounding them, so walking around is absolute hell. He and Riku stand in front of the store’s powerful fan for a good few minutes, letting it dry off some of their sweat before they move into the aisles.

“There’s thirteen of us, so that makes thirteen colors... “ Sora mutters as he leads them towards the beads section. “We should probably get a few more meters of string too, just to be safe.”

“How are we going to make them last, by the way?” Riku asks, glancing at the veritable rainbow of beads in front of the two of them. “Jewelry like that probably wouldn’t last very long in a battle.”

“We can ask the three fairies to spell them for us,” Sora shrugs. “If they can make our clothes indestructible, they can do the same to a dozen or so bracelets, right?”

“Oh yeah, that’s a good idea.”

“Okay, before we even start picking colors: should we go for transparent beads or opaque ones?”

“Opaque would let us see the color better, in my opinion.”

Sora nods. “Right. Then: red for Axel, obviously; green for Ven; pink for Kairi; light blue for Naminé; black for Vanitas…”

“Sky blue for you,” Riku pipes in, picking up a few beads in said color to show them to Sora. “Purple for Rikuto, I’d say -- maybe yellow for Isa, like the detail on his coat?”

“A nice aqua for you, then,” Sora says, keeping the _‘like your eyes’_ to himself. “That leaves, uh… Roxas, Xion, Aqua and Terra. Dark blue for Aqua, right?”

“Some sort of purplish blue would be nice, yeah,” Riku nods. “For Terra -- the wayfinder Aqua made for him had this kind of caramel orange tone to it, which would probably be nice for him.”

“Roxas wears a lot of white and black, so how about we combine that into gray?” Sora asks; Riku shrugs. “All that’s left is Xion…”

“Lavender, maybe? She’s been using the lavender earrings Kairi made her a lot.”

Sora runs over their choices a few more times to make sure everyone has been given a color, then sets out to choose the exact hues of every color with Riku’s help, filling up a dozen plastic packets with over a hundred small beads of each color, just in case. It’ll be better to overbuy than run out halfway through a bracelet, after all.

“So, any ideas on the design?”

Sora makes a noise of agreement, arranging the little packets in their basket carefully so that none of them spill over. “I’ve been thinking about it like this: we use the color of the bracelet’s owner as a base -- well, we’ll use Vanitas for the example, since his should be one of the simplest, so in this case it’d be black -- then add beads to represent the owner’s closest friendships and connections, which would give him Rikuto’s dark purple and Naminé’s light blue.”

“Would there be a pattern, or?”

“I wanna say mirrored, ‘cause I believe that’d look cool,” Sora grins. “Also, for, say, Vanitas, I’ve been thinking if I should add some beads for me and Ventus… since he looks like me and was created from Ventus, I mean. Do you think we could do that?”

“Sure,” Riku shrugs. “He probably won’t like it much, but it could be nice.”

“Near the ends of the bracelet,” Sora muses, staring at the beads and trying to visualize the final product. “On both sides -- green, sky blue, then green again. We can do the same to Rikuto, Roxas, Xion and Naminé’s, too!”

Riku looks at him for a moment, then grins teasingly. “Yours is going to be an absolute mess,” he laughs. “You want to have all the colors, don’t you?”

Sora puffs out his cheeks. “Of course!”

“I knew it,” Riku laughs again, prompting Sora to slap his shoulder in retaliation.

“A-ny-way!” Sora huffs, crossing his arms to the best of his ability, since he’s still holding their shopping basket. “You’ll help me with them, right?”

“I thought that was a given already, seeing as you’ve been using ‘us’ and ‘we’ for a good half hour now,” Riku half-smirks. Sora sticks his tongue out at him, which has Riku reaching out to pinch his cheeks none too gently.

“I’m putting the scarves thing on hold, by the way,” Sora says as they go down the yarn aisle. “I still want to make one for everyone, but I want them to look _nice_ , which they kinda don’t right now since I’m a newbie at it.”

“That’s fair,” Riku hums, then smirks again. “Remember that for when Kairi asks you why hers took so much longer to make than mine.”

“I will, and she’ll rub it right into your face,” Sora states haughtily, ignoring Riku’s resulting chuckle as he leads them towards the register.

They linger at the store’s entrance for a few minutes before starting the trek back home, bracing themselves for the experience of having the sun hit them right in the face.

“This is all your fault,” Riku grumbles once they set out, holding one of his hands up to stop the sun from shining straight in his eyes. “We could have waited until later, but nooo, you had to go buy them _right this second_.”

Sora briefly considers pushing Riku off of the bridge they’re passing through, but that’d be too much effort, so he settles for giving him the stink eye instead. “I had to do it while I still had the idea in my head!” he insists, resisting the urge to puff out his cheeks.

“Yeah, I know,” Riku sighs -- it’s not the first time something like this has happened, after all. “Are you excited to spend another weekend at the Tower?”

“Mhm, kinda! I think it’s gonna be nice!” Sora smiles, stepping closer to lace their arms together despite Riku’s protests on how it’s far too hot for physical contact to be comfortable. “Do you think you’re gonna be able to join us in a few spars?” he asks in a hopeful tone, summoning his best puppy-eyed look and aiming it right at Riku, adding a pitiful pout just to seal the deal. “It’s not as fun without you.”

Riku looks away from the pleading face with a ragged sigh, refusing to meet his eyes again no matter how much Sora tugs at his arm, which makes Sora bring out the whining.

“We can _try_ , alright?” Riku huffs at last, cuffing Sora over the head with a little bit more force than usual. “No promises.”

Sora lets out a loud whoop and squeezes Riku’s arm -- in gratitude, of course, not because he likes to feel Riku’s muscles shift under his hands or anything like that, nope! Not _at all_!

Dear god, he’s such a mess.

“Thanks, Riku!!” he beams, pulling out an exasperated chuckle from his best friend.

“Sometimes I wonder how I’ve managed to put up with you for seventeen whole years -- and counting, that is.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m an _angel_ ,” Sora turns up his nose, grinning deviously at the sound of Riku’s snort.

“Right, sure, how could I forget,” Riku shakes his head fondly, freeing his arm from Sora’s hold to lay it across Sora’s shoulders instead, bringing him closer by the neck and completely disregarding his own request for no physical contact.

“Exactly,” Sora nods sagely, shifting the shopping bags to his right arm so he can put the left one around Riku’s waist, hiding a wince upon discovering just how sweat-soaked Riku’s shirt is. He isn’t very good at it, however, if Riku’s snort is any indication.

“Told you,” he smirks, poking at the droplets around Sora’s hairline.

“Yeah, well. This is what life on the islands is all about, right?”

Riku laughs. “Most of it, for sure -- copious amounts of sunscreen so we don’t get burned to a crisp and buckets upon buckets of sweat.”

“Don’t forget the beaches,” Sora pipes in with a snicker. He sobers up from his mirth a few seconds later, glancing over the trees and shrubs that line the way home. “Would you have it any other way, though?”

“Nah,” Riku sighs, drumming his fingers on Sora’s upper arm. “It’s home.”

“Yeah,” Sora smiles, pressing closer for a moment. “It sure is.”

x

Sora and Riku lay low during their first day at the Mysterious Tower, using all of the skills they’ve acquired while living with the others at the Disney Castle to escape from the pranks that pop up by the dozen as soon as the first gummi ship lands.

At one particular moment, Riku had pointed out that Axel, Ventus and Roxas were standing close together -- with Axel bending down at the waist to furiously whisper something to the other two -- and the two of them have been firmly on the lookout ever since, because _those_ three together could only mean trouble. The fact that they’d all gone dead silent as soon as Sora and Riku walked past didn’t make them feel any better about it, either, even though Ventus had tried to smile reassuringly at them.

Most of the afternoon had been thankfully quiet, since Aqua and Terra had decided to conduct their foray into Yen Sid’s library at that time, but the remainder of the day quickly devolves into a free-for-all that has Sora and Riku escaping into their shared room as soon as they can. Their spars are set to happen on the following morning, at least, which should provide everyone with another -- less aggravating -- way to air out their frustrations.

He’d cajoled Riku into exchanging a few blows with him while they were still on the Islands, just to make sure that his best friend could handle it, and things were looking good. RIku had faltered a bit when he’d fired off a small spell to test his own limits, but sparing without magic wouldn’t be a problem for Sora, so it was no big deal. Riku’s swings had been just as powerful as he’d remembered -- perhaps even a little _stronger_ than before -- so Sora fully believes they’ll be able to do it, so long as they don’t get carried away.

That last thought makes him squint a bit, so he sends off a message to Kairi with a request to make sure the two of them don’t go _too_ far in their spar next morning. Kairi responds with a rolling eyes emoji and a promise to douse them with a Waterga if they get too into it, which prompts a mental image that has him snorting.

“What?” Riku asks from his bed, looking up from his own gummi phone with a half-smile.

“I asked Kairi to keep an eye on us tomorrow and she’s promised to hit us with a Waterga if we get carried away,” he explains with a chuckle.

Riku laughs, adjusting his position so that he can face Sora more fully. “She totally would, so we’d better be careful.”

“And she’d _like_ it, too,” Sora huffs amusedly, tilting the chair he’s sitting on backwards until it’s standing on only two legs despite the vaguely disapproving glare Riku shoots his way. Sora smirks challengingly in response, but Riku stays stubbornly silent, completely aware that nothing he says will stop Sora from doing stuff like this.

Sora directs his attention back to the book he’d taken from the Tower’s library, skimming the page in front of him with disinterest. The summary had been quite promising, but the rest of the book is so utterly _dry_ that he’s starting to wonder if the summary had been written by someone else -- and if so, if said person had written a better book for him to do research on.

He decides he’ll give it just one more chance; if nothing exciting happens in the next chapter, he’ll give up and see if Riku can stomach it. Right now, though, he’s in desperate need for some entertainment, so it’ll have to wait.

Sora pulls his gummi phone out of his pocket, then sets the book aside so that he can prop up the device in front of him on the table.

“Hey mini-me, are you in there?”

Roxas had wondered a few days ago why he always asked that when summoning his data-self given that the program pretty much literally _lived_ inside all of their gummi phones, but Sora just shrugged the question off. He supposes it’s kind of a tradition between him and his data-self at this point, and he’s not exactly the type of person to look into these little details, anyway.

What appears on his screen, however, isn’t the cheerful fourteen year old version of himself, but instead a fifteen year old version of _Riku_ , wearing an Organization coat and a slightly sheepish expression.

Sora can’t really help the high-pitched squeal that leaves his mouth at the sight, even if it’s a sort of embarrassing sound to make. “Riku!!!” he yells with his next breath, feeling his lips stretch into a very wide grin.

“Uh, Sora?” asks the _real_ Riku, looking very alarmed from where he’s suddenly sitting up in bed, hand outstretched as if ready to call on Braveheart.

“Sorry!” Sora bows his head, trying his best to sound apologetic despite the huge grin still on his face. “I meant Data-Riku!”

“Oh, um -- okay,” Riku settles down slowly, then narrows his eyes at Sora. “You scared me half to death!”

“I’m sorry!” he apologizes again, helpless to stop himself from chuckling at Riku’s disgruntled expression, then turns to face his gummi phone once more. “I’ve been wanting to meet you for so long! I take it that Chip and Dale did something to boost your abilities like I asked?”

“They did,” Data-Riku nods with a small smile. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“No prob!” Sora beams, tapping his right foot in excitement. “Still, I thought mini-me would be with you?”

“He would be,” Data-Riku agrees, looking somewhat exasperated; Sora nearly giggles at how perfectly it mirrors the real Riku’s -- _his_ Riku’s -- earlier expression. “He begged me to take over all users’ requests for the night, claiming that he had something of the ‘utmost importance’ to do that would require all of his focus, so. Here I am.”

“I’ll have to ask him about that later, then,” Sora hums happily, taking the time to just study Data-Riku’s features as best he can in the tiny screen. “This is so weird, but also so _cool_ ,” he breathes out, unable to keep himself from grinning or his leg from bouncing.

“Yeah, it’s definitely _something_ ,” Data-Riku nods, his expression infinitely softer than his Riku’s had been at that same age. “But anyway, what did you call your data-self for?”

“Oh, I completely forgot it now,” Sora laughs, prompting _both_ Rikus to let out identical snorts. “Why don’t you tell me about the adventure you had with your Sora? The King mentioned it to us, but didn’t really get into details. Or, I guess we could wait until Data-Sora can be here too?”

“His data got wiped clean when the journal was fixed, so he doesn’t remember,” Data-Riku explains with a brief shake of his head. “But I can tell him that we talked about this, so he can comment on what he _does_ remember later.”

“Sounds good!”

“Right. It all started when Jiminy went to check the journal of your first journey and noticed an entry he didn’t remember writing…”

x

It isn’t very fun to keep watch all by himself, but Data-Sora doesn’t _really_ mind it. He could ask Data-Riku to come keep him company, but he doesn’t think his best friend would approve of the plan he’d agreed to help Axel, Roxas and Ventus with, so he’ll just have to find a way to pass the time while he waits.

There’s still a few hours to see if their plan will work for real, but Data-Sora is already happy that he’s chosen to participate in it, seeing as he’d felt his real world counterpart summoning him a few hours earlier and he’d left his Riku in charge of requests for the night. The updates to their servers had been finally completed some days ago, so Data-Sora had just been waiting for the real Sora to call on him just so that he could drag Data-Riku with him when he answered, though he’s a bit sad that he couldn’t be there as well.

He busies himself with backing up Axel’s archives like Roxas had suggested, just in case something happens to the gummi phone. There’s a lot to transfer to their memory banks at the Disney Castle for safekeeping: chat logs, photos, reminders, songs, notes… He’ll have to pass some of these along to Roxas and Isa’s gummi phones, since they spent the most time near Axel and it wouldn’t do to deprive him of his classwork reminders and morning alarms, but that’ll be easy enough to do once he gets back to the hub.

For now, he just focuses on being thorough and leaving no file unchecked.

It’s nice to be a part of something like this again; as much as being everyone’s virtual assistant keeps him busy, he kind of misses going on little adventures with his Riku and the King. The real Sora and a handful of the others always make sure to give him access to their photos and videos so he can experience the places they’ve visited and the things they’ve done as well, but that still isn’t the same as seeing everything for himself.

He won’t let it get him down, though. If the urge to explore gets too big for him to ignore, he can always talk to his counterpart to see if Sora can figure something out for Data-Riku and himself.

About an hour after he’s completed the backup, Data-Sora notices movement in the room he’s in. He quickly opens the device’s control panel to make _triple_ sure that everything has been set to silent; it wouldn’t do to ruin the plan just because he forgot to do something as simple as that, after all.

Once that’s done, he pulls up both the camera and the chat logs of Roxas and Ventus both, sparing a fleeting glance towards the gummi phone’s clock -- early morning, long before everyone else starts waking up, though he wouldn’t be surprised in the least if Vanitas is still wandering around in the dark.

He watches as the target moves towards the carefully-concealed trap with barely contained excitement. He’ll have to time it perfectly; none of them know how the target is going to react, so Data-Sora needs to get the video out of Axel’s device as soon as possible to make sure it isn’t destroyed or anything of the sort. There’ll be time to send it to everyone else later; right now, he just needs to guarantee that the video makes it out of this room.

Data-Sora waits a little longer, counting out the seconds, then finally presses _record_.

x

Sora is pulled out from the depths of slumber by a loud, incessant noise that has him immediately grumpy before he even manages to open his eyes. He feels around the edges of his pillow to find his gummi phone, then jabs the screen with his index half a dozen times in an effort to make it _stop_ , even though now that he’s paying a little more attention, he realizes that the infernal sound isn’t coming just from his device.

Riku presses his face onto Sora’s shoulder with a displeased grumble; the arm he has draped over Sora’s waist flexes, bringing Sora a little closer to his front. “For the love of god, please make that stop,” he pleads in a raspy voice.

“I’m _trying_ ,” Sora huffs, forcing his eyes open to squint accusingly at the screen and sighing when he sees Data-Sora’s fuzzy outline. Both his and Riku’s gummi phones stop ringing once Data-Sora realizes he has Sora’s attention, prompting Riku to let out a relieved exhale.

“I’m really sorry for waking you guys up, but Roxas told me I had to,” his data-self says in a quiet voice, sounding genuinely apologetic for it.

“ _Ughhhhhhhhhh_ ,” Sora groans, making a mental note to wipe the floor with his Nobody whenever he gets the chance. “Wha’ time izzit?”

“ _Very_ early,” Data-Sora responds simply. Sora lets the gummi phone fall back to the bed in disgust, narrowing his eyes at the ceiling.

“What did he want?”

“He said you had to watch this video,” Data-Sora replies, probably pulling up the file as he says it. Sora forces himself to pick the device back up, rubbing the gunk out of his eyes so that he can actually see the screen. His data-self presses play as soon as he confirms that Sora’s watching.

It takes him an embarrassingly long time to realize that the room in the video is Yen Sid’s office, but he’s still approximately sixty-five percent asleep, so cut him some slack. He also notices that it was filmed from a much lower height than it’d be expected, which means that the device that took it was probably propped up somewhere instead of being held by a person.

The video’s main focus is the long table in the middle of the Master’s office, which confuses him for a few seconds, since there’s no one sitting there and thus no reason for the video to have been filmed. Data-Sora urges him to wait, though, so he keeps on watching, humming noncommittally when Yen Sid enters the shot.

His mouth falls open when Yen Sid goes to sit on his tall-backed chair and the completely unmistakeable noise of a joke fart bag sounds out -- deceptively loud in the dead-silent room. The Master stays eerily still in its aftermath, and the video ends not even two full seconds later, giving them no chance to know how he’d reacted to it.

“Oh my god,” Sora says in a mixture of horror and fascination, reaching backwards blindly to shake Riku out of his doze. “Who did this?” he asks Data-Sora as Riku swats his hand away.

“Well, _I_ recorded the video, but Axel, Roxas and Ventus were the ones behind this,” Data-Sora grins proudly.

“So _that’s_ why you weren’t around earlier,” Sora nods slowly, then turns to face his best friend. “Riku, c’mon, you _have_ to see this!!”

“ _What?_ ” Riku growls, accepting the gummi phone that Sora shoves in his face with a mighty frown.

Sora leans in to watch it as well, but he spends about half of the video’s time watching _Riku_ instead, fighting back a smile as his best friend blinks sleepily at the screen’s muted light. He has the same reaction to the sound as Sora, staring incredulously at the device once the video ends.

Riku blinks a few more times. “When was this?”

“Around fifteen minutes ago,” Data-Sora replies promptly. “Roxas told me that you _had_ to see it, and that I couldn’t let you go back to sleep until you did,” he explains again, fiddling with the hems of his gloves. “I lost access to Axel’s gummi phone -- which was used to record this -- so I’m guessing it’s been destroyed. I’ve already sent it to everyone else, though, _and_ made a copy of it in our serves for safe-keeping.”

“They’re going to die,” Riku breathes out. “He’s gonna kill them.”

Right then, as if by design, they hear a commotion in the hall beyond their door, which has both Sora and Riku scrambling out of bed to see what’s happening. Sora’s mouth drops open again at the sight of the magic brooms carrying the three culprits away -- as in, _literally_ carrying, not even Axel’s feet were touching the ground --, presumably to Yen Sid’s office.

“Sora!!” Roxas yells, having finally seen him standing there. “Sora, I leave my skateboard to you, do you hear me? Don’t let anyone else touch it!!”

Ventus turns his head towards Sora and Riku as well. “Please tell Aqua and Terra I love them, but I had to do this!” he begs, struggling in the broom’s firm hold.

Axel, meanwhile, is too busy trying to escape the broom’s clutches to notice them, so the only thing they hear from him are grunts of effort and demands to be let go.

In a matter of seconds, all three of them have moved out of Sora and Riku’s line of sight; their screams of protest echo down the infinite halls and stairways for a good few minutes however, before stopping abruptly.

“Welp, that’s it; they’re dead,” Riku declares with false cheer, staring at the spot they’d last seen the three of them. “After all the trouble we went through to bring them back, too,” he adds as an afterthought, sounding mildly disgruntled still.

“Yeah,” Sora agrees automatically, then blinks himself out of his stupor.

He’ll have to watch the video again later, once he’s had enough hours of sleep, so that it may hopefully get at least a few chuckles out of him; three of his friends gave their lives for that video to exist, after all, so he’d better appreciate it fully.

But at the moment, he _really_ needs to go back to sleep.

“Let’s go back to bed,” he suggests, pulling Riku back into their bedroom as he says it. “We can deal with all this in the morning, preferably after we have our spar.”

Riku lets out a hum of agreement, closing the door behind him and making a beeline to the bed they’d been using. “That’s a good idea.”

“It’ll all just have to wait,” Sora yawns, pulling the blankets over them and settling against Riku’s chest once more.

Neither of them find it difficult to fall back asleep, thankfully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> R.I.P. Axel, Roxas and Ventus.  
> The idea for this prank has been with me pretty much since the beginning. Axel does it because he's an asshole who likes to try his luck (which is also 50% of Roxas' reasoning) while I like to think that Roxas and Ventus did it because Sora told them about how Yen Sid treated him (i'm so salty) and although Sora sees it as no big deal, the not-twins decided retribution was in order. Riku privately approves, later on, because I say so. Yen Sid deserves it.  
> Y'all, I love the Sleeping Realm so goddamn much. I ended up playing DDD for nearly two fucking hours when I was writing that part, cause I wanted to go to Prankster's Paradise to choose a spot but I'd stopped playing last as Riku with 2 full drop gauges and a 0.4x multiplier........ I am way too dedicated to that kinda stuff lmao. Feel free to imagine whatever dream eaters y'all want for the others; I wasn't about to torture myself by choosing Spirits for everyone, so I kept it vague lol.  
> Sora continues to thirst after Riku.... >:3c don't worry y'all, we're getting there! (I can worry for like all of you anyway, so y'all don't need to.) What Kairi told him/lectured him about makes sense, by the way; even if Sora poked Riku about why he's so out of it now, Riku wouldn't be willing to answer and it'd be ugly. Riku isn't ready to talk yet because he's got too many Anxieties swrimming around in his head, so even though Sora doesn't like it, he'll have to wait. Still, that anxiety doesn't mean they don't have fun — just that it trails off kind of weirdly sometimes.  
> Naminé's prank is also something I've been waiting to do for a looooong time, and I cackled so much while writing that part. Gliter is the devil's work, and people from the future are gonna find glitter in Axel's skeleton even hundreds of years after he dies, absolutely. Serves him right for only doing AoE attacks, after all.  
> Then, Tower mischief! We finally get to see Data-Riku! I like thinking about how different Data-Riku (and Rikuto, too) is from the original Riku, due to how he probably doesn't really remember doing all the things he did in KH1, but he still ended up finding a way to move past his arrogan  
> ce and stuff to work together with (Data-)Sora. The data boys are just so cute!!!! I love seeing them interact, re:coded soriku is some of the sweetest ❤️  
> Oh, and the bracelets! I choose a hex color for everyone's colors because I go way too hard on the details, so if you wanna see them, there they are: https://i.imgur.com/DvbeNUC.png Sora's bracelet is really gonna be an absolute mess with all these colors, but he still loves it so much lol. It was kind of a Chore to figure them all out, but it was also pretty fun!  
> I'm pretty sure I had more stuff to say, but time is running out and my head is blank, so... All I'm gonna say is that we're getting so close! It's the final countdown!!!! 3 more chapters............................. i need to go lie down


	24. Chapter 23

Their next visit to Ienzo’s lab allows them to find out that they’ve healed 7% of Riku’s heart in the past month, which leaves him with only 9% to go before he’s back to full health -- they’re getting so close!

Sora is absolutely ecstatic over the news, of course, but he can’t help but notice that they put Riku in a weirdly reserved mood all over again. He asks Kairi about it, just to make sure that it isn’t all in his head, but she confirms that their best friend _is_ acting strangely; however, even with the two of them brainstorming together, they still can’t figure out the reason behind it.

It can’t be a side-effect of their healing session this time around, given that he’d woken up on Thursday completely fine again. Sora had wanted to push their limits just a little bit, so they’d asked Aqua to supervise them again (Sora didn’t feel as bad about doing it as he’d had at the beginning, especially since they had what basically amounted to an end date this time around). Considering their current rate, it’ll take three more sessions at _most_ to reach the ever closer 100% -- two if they continue to push their luck.

Sora’s own healing is supposed to be done in two weeks, though that’s somewhat of a technicality. He’ll have reached 100% of his heart by then, sure, but an unknown amount of it will still be composed of the pieces that _Riku_ had given him, so he thinks they should wait for Riku’s to get to 100% as well before they can actually celebrate.

Kairi doesn’t share this opinion, however, and she’s roped their parents into agreeing with her too -- as much as they can without having all the facts, anyway. Hoshi had already divulged her plans into making their favorite cake on the weekend in which Sora’s heart is set to reach full integrity, staying firm in her decision even after Sora tried to argue by saying that they should wait for Riku as well. Her only response had been to tell him that they’d have _another_ small party when such a time comes; he’d had no arguments against _that_ , so Sora’d been forced to admit defeat and accept both feasts.

Speaking of parties; activity at the Disney Castle has been picking up recently, seeing as Christmas is a little over a month away. The King had explained to them that there’s a grand ball at the castle every year on the Sunday closest to Christmas, which falls on December 23rd in this particular year: everyone from the nearby town is automatically invited to attend, with the ball continuing on until the wee hours of the morning as the common folk enjoy a wonderful night at the big castle.

It goes without saying that all thirteen of them are also invited, of course, though there’s a few interesting changes to their weekly routine once they confirm their presence. For starters, the Queen hurries to get their dancing classes started; they’d only been planning on having them later in the school year, but Queen Minnie insists that they should learn at least the most common dances for the ball, so they have their first class before the week is out.

The fact that their ballroom dancing instructor is quite good-natured is a blessing, seeing as most of them need a while before they’re able to take the lessons seriously. He’s determined on having all of them learn both how to lead _and_ how to be led, no matter their gender; arguing that a dance is a perfect time to reconvene and discuss findings or secret plans -- and as such it wouldn’t do for them to be unable to dance with a given partner just because both of them only know the same role.

It’s an intriguing idea that makes Sora wonder how much the Queen had told the man about what they’re training for. At any rate, most of them are still _teenagers_ , and for all the maturity that they’ve shown while saving the universe, they remain utterly unable to have dance classes without a dozen giggling fits over pretty much everything it entails.

They switch partners frequently, but Sora continues to try his best to stick close to Riku despite knowing that doing so is probably not at all necessary at this point. The instructor doesn’t mind their grumbles and scattered laughter for the first few lessons, though he makes it clear that he _will_ require them to take it seriously in the future, since it _also_ wouldn’t do for them to give away their plans or topics of discussion to any onlooker just because they can’t maintain their composure.

The funniest thing about their dancing lesson by _far_ is how limited Axel’s options for a partner are. He’s so _stupidly_ tall -- like a beanpole, Roxas mutters, with Isa nodding in agreement -- that it’s a chore for him to dance with more than half of their group. The only ones who can truly dance with him without uncomfortably craning their necks or forcing him to bed over at a ridiculous angle are Isa, Terra, Aqua and Riku, which makes for a sight that has caused more than just a few laughing fits -- _especially_ from Vanitas.

Axel’s extremely limited dancing partners aren’t the only thing to make the others laugh, though; he, Roxas and Ventus have been acting weird ever since their forced visit to Yen Sid’s office. Xion and Aqua have found them staring unseeingly at a wall more than just a few times already, letting out the occasional full-body shudder or pitiful whimper.

Data-Sora is the one to tell them what happened at the Master’s office, explaining that he’d gotten worried and sneaked into Roxas’ gummi phone to figure out what was going on. According to Sora’s data-self, Yen Sid had lectured the three of them for _hours_ about the need for respect, responsibility and many, many other things. _Many other things_. Not only that, but the troublemakers had also been forced to take the place of the Master’s magic brooms for the rest of their stay, ferrying water and cleaning up the Tower’s endless floors with barely any breaks.

Then, as the cherry on top, they’d also lost all of their magical privileges regarding the Tower. No longer would their rooms be kept automatically clean; nor would they find their favorite foods waiting for them whenever they opened the fridge. The halls and stairways wouldn’t make themselves shorter for their benefit anymore, and if they wanted to visit a certain room, they’d have to ask very, _very_ nicely.

It’s bad, sure, but Sora would argue that it isn’t the worst case scenario -- while the consequences hit Ventus somewhat harder than the other two, seeing as he and the others still get the food for the Land of Departure from the Tower, Axel and Roxas don’t really visit it all that much.

He keeps quiet about this, though, because Roxas gets a scary look in his eyes whenever someone says that it could have been worse and Sora doesn’t want to be the one to finally make him snap.

But anyway, back to the dancing lessons.

Roxas and Xion are a little shocked to see how quickly Sora catches on to the steps and timing of each dance, but Kairi doesn’t even bat an eye. When questioned about it, she shrugs and explains that both of her best friends have always been naturals when it comes to physical activities -- sports, swimming, fighting, you name it -- so it’s really no surprise that the same would happen with dancing.

Sora and Riku aren’t perfect at it from the get go, obviously, but they find it easy to pick up on the music’s cues and follow them to the best of their ability, which is already leagues better than what about half of their group can do.

Still, Sora is prone to losing his rhythm and stumbling over his own feet if he thinks too much about which steps he should take, which earns him a raised eyebrow from their instructor and a few scattered chuckles from his friends. He doesn’t really mind it much for the most part, but it’s annoying at times; he’ll be gliding along on the ballroom floor, letting the music guide his feet, but then he’ll make a simple mistake and, all of a sudden, the magic is lost.

The instructor’s only verbal reaction to this is to say that they’ll have to practice until Sora doesn’t need to think about it anymore. This gets a handful of groans out of the others, but the instructor only smiles in response to their displeasure, telling everyone that such a thing had already been in his plans from the start.

Dancing with Roxas, Ventus, Xion and Naminé is nice, but Sora’s favorite partners are Kairi and Riku. He always laughs at Kairi’s smug face when it’s her turn to lead, throwing in a cheeky curtsy complete with a lifting of his imaginary skirt that is pretty much guaranteed to make her laugh.

His very favorite dancing partner is Riku, though -- to the surprise to absolutely no one. His heart goes all fluttery inside his ribcage when he realizes that their next partner switch will allow the two of them to dance together, and whenever Riku is the one to lead, Sora feels like he’s walking on clouds for the entire duration of the dance, as cliche as that sounds.

It helps that Riku always blushes the prettiest pink when Sora beams at him as they dance, of course, though the sight of it tends to make Sora want to push his luck -- step just a little closer to make their dance more intimate, or maybe let his grin transition into something quieter, something just for Riku -- but he always holds back.

As nice as it’d be to do such things, that’s not how he wants Riku to learn of his feelings. While the idea of doing something daring to expose what he feels makes his heart beat faster, Sora would much rather sit down to have a proper talk about his feelings and what they’ll mean for the two of them, even if the thought of it has his stomach in knots. He wants to do this _right_ ; he wants to show that he respects Riku’s own feelings, whichever they may be, and that no matter what happens, they’ll always be the closest of friends in the end.

He still pretty much _melts_ whenever Riku puts a hand on his waist or takes Sora’s hand in his, obviously, but that’s no one’s business but his own -- no matter how many coos Kairi sends their way. He knows she’d stop doing it if he asked, but he finds it funny too -- once the embarrassment and fluttery feelings have quieted back down, that is. He’s been getting the passing urge to suffocate her with a pillow for over a decade now, anyway, so he’s pretty much used to it at this point.

But at any rate, their brand-new dancing lessons aren’t the only thing Queen Minnie has readied for them in preparation for the Christmas party. She also summons her team of royal tailors and seamstresses to outfit every one of them in formal wear of the highest quality; all custom-made to take their comfort and preferences into full account.

And they won’t be just _gorgeous_ , of course: the Queen plans on having the three fairies visit once all the pieces are done in order to give all of them the same spells of durability and protection that their usual outfits have. They never know when a battle might happen in the midst of a ball, after all, so it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.

The tailors had been thoughtful enough to ask the girls if they’d prefer a suit over a dress, but all four of them had agreed to fancy dresses after some consideration. The boys also get the choice to customize their tuxedos in a handful of ways; the outrageous ideas that come up as the tailors’ aides go around the whole group to note down each of the specifications cause more than just a few laughing fits.

Sora had groaned liberally upon first hearing about what the entire process of making them custom clothing would mean, to absolutely no one’s surprise. It involved a lot of standing still while other people spun circles around him to take his every measurement, after all, and Sora’s complete inability to do so might as well be his fatal flaw, so he’d been preparing himself to be bored out of his mind for the entire time.

Riku ends up being Sora’s saving grace in this regard, though, thank the heavens. Just the sight of his best friend suited up in a basic tuxedo is more than enough to knock him out of his senses for _hours_ , forcing his body to enter on auto-pilot while his mind drinks in every single detail as if it’d been seconds away from dying of dehydration.

This tends to backfire when they leave the large dressing room, however, because Kairi likes to tell him to wipe off the drool from his chin and Sora will just _do it_. He always gives her the stink eye when he realizes what’s happened, but by then, she’s usually deep into a laughing fit already, so it doesn’t have much of an effect.

Riku stops coming closer to ask why she’s laughing after the first few times Sora drags him away with a raging blush, but he continues to smile whenever it happens -- a wide, genuine smile that lights his whole face up and sends Sora’s heart into overdrive even if he only sees it from the corner of his eyes.

Still, if this is his reaction to seeing Riku in a slightly-too-big suit, put on just for the measurements it provides to the tailors, then he’d better have an Elixir at hand when it’s time to try on their _real_ tuxedos -- otherwise he may not survive.

All this talk about Christmas and the upcoming ball also has Sora realizing that the bracelets he’s been crafting with Riku’s help could very well be their Christmas gift to the others, if they time it carefully enough. They’re not exactly _hard_ to do -- and they already have all the necessary materials, which is a bonus -- but Sora keeps going back to a previously finished one to do small tweaks and alterations, so none of them have been _truly_ marked as complete as of yet.

It involves a whole lot of thinking, too -- about the friendships they have with each other, for the most part, but also about the deeper connections they all share, be they good or bad. He’ll never be able to capture everything _perfectly_ , of course, but he wants these small, simple bracelets to be the best possible attempt at it, so he’ll rework them until he’s satisfied.

Riku sometimes acts exasperated when Sora tells him to remove all the beads from one of them to account for his newest idea, sure, but Sora is aware he doesn’t _really_ mind it. The work can be seriously tedious at times, but Sora knows that Riku likes doing it, so he passes the task forward without a second thought.

Plus, as a direct consequence of his decision to make the bracelets his Christmas gift to everyone, he also doesn’t have to scramble around to buy presents for his friends, which is a not-inconsiderable relief given how _many_ of them there are. And, since he’s nice, he’ll say that they’re from both Riku _and_ himself, thus freeing his best friend from the burden of having to figure something out as well.

Some of their friends have already started the search for the perfect presents, though not all of them plan to partake in the tradition. There’s a bet going on amongst a handful of them in regards as to whether Vanitas is going to give anyone a gift, too; they had a big argument on whether pranks counted as a gift a few days ago, and -- after literal hours of discussion -- they’d come to the somewhat tentative conclusion that no, they didn’t, which had greatly diminished their options.

Sora’s pretty secure in his bet that Vanitas will only ready a gift for Naminé, though. Ventus thinks he’ll give something to Rikuto as well, but Riku agrees with Sora’s thought that it’ll most likely be a prank, so it won’t count.

Christmas is still a little under a month away, however, so they’ll just have to wait and see.

Sora could very well use the excuse of how much time they have left to slack on making the bracelets, but to be quite honest, he doesn’t want to. This is the reason why he drags himself out of bed early on a Sunday to sit at his desk and pull the materials for Kairi’s bracelet out of his school bag, laying them all in front of him to figure out what would work best.

Come to think of it, he also needs to think about how he wants Riku’s to look like, but there’s plenty of time to make it, so he’s not worried. By the way, Riku had decided he’ll be in charge of Sora’s own bracelet and wouldn’t hear otherwise no matter how much Sora pouted about it.

He’s frankly excited to see how it comes out, though Riku has teasingly told him that he’ll only get to have a peek of it the day before the party, which in turn prompted Sora to declare the same. None of the others know what the two of them are planning -- Sora wants to make it a nice surprise for everyone -- but he’s been considering letting Kairi into the secret to get some advice on how to go about Riku’s, since he doesn’t want to over _or_ understate his own importance to Riku.

He looks up from his desk upon hearing one of his parents walk around the corridor, sparing a quick glance to the still sleeping Riku, who doesn’t even stir. A couple of seconds later, there’s a soft knock on his door -- enough to be heard, but not to wake them up if they’re sleeping -- and then Daichi opens the door just a crack, poking his head inside to see how the two of them are doing.

Sora smiles at the sight. “Hey Dad,” he says, setting down the packet of beads he’d been fiddling with.

“Oh, you’re awake,” Daichi smiles back, opening the door a little more. “Can I come in?”

“Sure! Riku’s still sleeping, though, so we should be quiet.”

“Got it,” Daichi nods, walking closer to peer at Sora’s desk. “What are you making?”

“My Christmas gifts for my friends,” Sora replies, doing a quick explanation of his idea as he looks for Vanitas’ mostly-finished bracelet to show as an example. “I’m working on Kairi’s right now.”

Daichi studies the materials strewn about a little more carefully, then releases a low chuckle. “Pink, huh?”

Sora laughs as well. “It’s her favorite color!” he shrugs amusedly.

“That it is. It all sounds really nice, son,” Daichi smiles, giving Sora’s hair a gentle ruffle.

“Thanks, Dad. I hope everyone will like it.”

“I’m sure they will; even the ones who might not want to show it,” Daichi half-smirks, probably drawing on what Sora and Riku have told him about their friends to make such a statement.

Sora snorts. “Yeah, Vanitas would probably rather eat his own foot than admit he likes it, but I’m hoping that he’ll at least agree to wear it.”

“Well, I wish you the best of luck on getting him to do so.”

“Our best bet is probably getting Naminé to deliver it to him,” Sora hums, biting his lip as he imagines the scene. “So when the party’s closer, we’ll talk to her about it.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Daichi nods. “Your mom wanted me to ask if you’re going to be spending Christmas at home, by the way.”

Sora looks up in mild surprise. “Of course! I think we’re going to the Castle after our check-up on Saturday, so we’ll be sleeping there then; oh, and we’ll most likely sleep there on Sunday too since we don’t know when the party is gonna end, but we’re coming back home as soon as we wake up on the 24th, for sure!”

Daichi lets out a small sigh of relief. “That’s good -- Aiko told me she and Hoshi have been thinking about skipping the Mayor’s party this year around so that we can spend the entire day together,” he says, smiling a little. “Hoshi might have to do a shift on the 25th, but that’s it; we’re all completely free otherwise.”

“We’re going to the beach on the 25th, right?” Sora grins.

“Of course!” Daichi laughs, leaning forward to give Sora’s shoulders a playful push. “That’s how traditions are supposed to work, aren’t they?”

“Dunno, you tell me!” Sora teases, poking one of Daichi’s ribs. His dad lets out a little huff, batting Sora’s bony fingers away with a small huff.

“We’ve made more than enough noise; I should go before we wake Riku up.”

Sora spares another glance to his sleeping best friend, then stands up abruptly as Daichi makes his way to the door, ignoring the scrape of the chair’s legs against the floor.

“Actually--” he says hurriedly, a bit louder than he’d intended. “There’s something I walked to talk to you about, if that’s okay?” he continues in a quieter voice, running his fingertips over the edge of his desk.

Daichi blinks in surprise at the sudden shift in tone. “Of course,” he replies after a moment. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Not here,” Sora whispers, stepping away from his desk and putting the chair back in its place. “Can we go to your room?”

“Sure.”

A part of Sora finds the similarities between this and the last time he’s had a serious conversation with one of his parents somewhat amusing, though he hopes that _this_ one won’t throw him in a pit of helpless despair like the other.

“So,” Daichi smiles reassuringly, taking a seat on the bed next to Sora. “What is it that you wanted us to talk about?”

Sora takes a deep breath, swaying gently from side to side as he collects his thoughts.

“I wanted to ask for advice, mostly. I’ve been noticing that Riku’s hiding something that’s bothering him a lot, and I’ve been trying not to bug him about it too much because I want to show him that I trust him to come forward if he needs my help with anything, but I can _see_ that it’s just getting worse and he always changes the subject whenever I ask him if he’s okay… He’ll say that he’s fine, or say it’s about something else, but I _know_ that it’s still the same thing. What should I do, Dad?”

Daichi sighs, then takes a deep breath. “That’s a real tough situation, buddy,” he says at last, his voice as kind as he can make it. “It can be really aggravating to see a friend go through a hard time but still refuse to talk about it, even when you give them all the opportunities to do so. Do you have any idea what it’s about?”

“It probably has to do with our healing… He started acting like this about a month ago, after we paid a visit to the lab. We only got good news, though, so I don’t know what set him off.”

“In that case, as much as it sucks, you’ll probably just have to be patient,” Daichi shakes his head in sympathy, giving Sora an one-armed hug when Sora’s face falls. “If he hasn’t talked yet, it means he’s not ready to do it, so you’re gonna have to wait until he is. If you push, it’s likely to only make him even more unwilling to bring it up in the first place.”

“I know,” Sora sighs, letting Daichi pull him closer to drop a kiss on his temple. “I just really, really hate it. I want to help him!”

“Not everyone will accept your help, Sora,” Daichi reminds him gently but firmly. “It’s great to _want_ to help, of course, but sometimes it may only make things worse.”

Sora sighs again, more deeply this time, thinking about all the times in which this has been true during his journeys. “I know,” he repeats in a quieter voice.

Daichi squeezes Sora's shoulders comfortingly, tilting his head forward so that Sora can see his small smile. “Just keep on being there for him, keep on showing your support, and I have faith that everything will work out eventually. You boys have never been able to stay at odds for long,” he laughs, and is clearly pleased to see Sora smile as well.

“Yeah, that's true. Thanks, Dad.”

“Anytime, son. Was that all you wanted to talk about?”

Sora thinks about it for a moment, then lowers his head to hopefully hide the blush that begins to color his cheeks. “Actually… there’s something else, too.”

“Just tell me what it is, son, and your father shall do his best to help,” Daichi declares proudly, thumping his own chest for effect. Sora snorts at the display despite himself.

He decides to just blurt the question out, since it worked well enough last time. “How did you figure out Mom liked you back?”

Daichi appears somewhat taken aback by the question, dropping the arm from Sora’s shoulder so that he can tap his chin instead. A couple of seconds later, he focuses back on Sora with laser-point intensity, seemingly unaware of how this makes Sora squirm.

“...You absolutely don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but… this is _also_ about Riku, isn’t it?”

Sora feels his cheeks heat up even more, prompting him to duck his head out of his Daichi’s view. God, is he _that_ obvious?

“...Yeah, it is,” he replies after a few beats, fiddling with the hem of his shirt to give his hands something to do. “Did Mom tell you about it?”

“No, she didn’t -- I didn’t even know there was something to tell, actually,” Daichi scratches his head, huffing out a small laugh. “But I _did_ raise both of you boys; and I’m your _dad_ , Sora.”

Sora laughs a little as well, chancing a glance at Daichi through the wisps of hair that frame his face. “So, yeah. I lik--” he stops abruptly, quickly reconsiders how honest he wants to be, then continues as firmly as he can: “I love Riku. I’m in love with him.”

He watches a grin spread on his father’s face from the corners of his eyes and is helpless to stop himself from copying it, even though he feels like his heart is trying to exit his body via his mouth. He didn’t think admitting it out loud to someone else would make him feel like this -- all tingly and floaty and happy.

“That’s great, Sora!” Daichi exclaims joyfully, pulling him into another hug. “I’m so happy for you!”

Sora lets out a bashful chuckle, allowing Daichi to shake him by the shoulders without complaint. “Thanks, Dad. I feel like I really should have realized it earlier, but... “ he shrugs.

“Nah, we can’t hurry these things. What matters is that you got there eventually.”

“Yeah,” Sora smiles, basking in Daichi’s pride. “I’ve already decided I want to tell him about it, but I haven’t found the right moment yet,” he worries his lower lip for a few seconds, thinking about all the moments in which he tried to make the words come out only to have them remain stuck in his throat. “And I want to make it clear that he doesn’t _have_ to return my feelings at all, but… it’d be nice to know if I’ve got a chance, y’know? If _we_ have a chance.”

“Well, I don’t think that my experience with your mother would be of any help in your case, son. The two of you have been through things we can’t even imagine; not only that, you and Riku have also known each other since you were born, which is already a pretty big change from how it was with Aiko and I. Still, we can try to figure something out,” Daichi smiles reassuringly, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling.

“Okay,” Sora nods. His stomach feels like an endless pit of hopelessly tangled up nervousness and excitement, making him suddenly glad that he hasn’t had breakfast yet.

“For Aiko and I… It was the normal stuff, really. Lingering touches, a few secretive smiles, a lot of eye contact, sticking close to the other whenever we went out as a group; some stuttering here and there whenever the topic of feelings came up, that kinda stuff. Always having Hoshi around also helped me realize what was just friendly banter and what was something _more_ , seeing as they’ve been best friends for so long.

“You and Riku already do almost all of those things, just by virtue of being such close friends and of having gone through so many things together, so they’re not all that helpful. You’ve only grown ever closer after coming back, too, so it probably makes things even more difficult.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Sora sighs, looking down at his hands. “We have Kairi, but that’s not exactly the same, I think.”

“The friendship you have with her is a little different, though no less special, I’d imagine,” Daichi smiles, bumping Sora’s shoulder with his own.

“Absolutely!!”

“But still, I think this just means you have to look at your own unique situation to find things that may point to Riku’s feelings. Things he does with you, but with no one else. And it doesn’t have to be big, either; it doesn’t have to be him taking a hit for you, or dropping everything to make sure you’re alright -- look for the little things, too.”

“That sounds good, yeah,” Sora nods thoughtfully, his brain already starting to comb through their journeys in search for clues. “Thanks again, Dad.”

“You can always come to me for anything, Sora,” Daichi smiles gently, brushing Sora’s hair away from his face. “That’s what I’m here for.”

“I know,” Sora grins back, giving Daichi a tight hug. “And I really, really appreciate it.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Daichi says, hugging him back just as tightly. “Now, run along -- you have a lot to think about, I bet.”

Sora chuckles. “Yeah, I do. Here’s to hoping that Riku sleeps for another hour while I do it.”

“Fingers crossed,” Daichi smirks.

Sora leaves his parent’s bedroom after hugging Daichi just one more time, sighing in relief upon seeing Riku still asleep, then making a beeline for his knitting materials. His mind is churning too much to allow him to give the bracelets the amount of attention they deserve, so knitting it’ll be.

Steeling himself with a determined huff, Sora gets to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Riku's Bad Brain continues to act up, but we're getting close to a resolution! Sora is Looking™️ and he doesn't exactly like what he's seeing, but there isn't much he can do to help when Riku isn't ready to accept said help :/  
> God, I love sprinkling in little hints and nods at Isa throughout the fic. Like, he's quiet, sure, but he's there, and don't you forget it!!! (he's there to watch Axel make a fool of himself, pretty much.) I cackle so much at the thought of Axel trying to dance with Xion and it just being completely miserable because Axel's so TALL. They all have fun, though!! It's yet another group activity to add to their repertoire, and it's a fun thing to do with friends! Sora and Riku are highkey just Dying in there, obviously, but they love it too lmao.  
> Axel, Roxas and Ventus are traumatized for life after the lecture of the century, but all three of them still think it was worth it. Whenever the flashbacks get too strong they pull up the videos and just laugh at it all over again! Axel also got lectured for having his gummi phone be destroyed, I bet, but Chip and Dale have probably given him a new one already, lol.  
> I feel like if Sora did any of the daring things he's been thinking about from time to time, Riku would immediately panic and go 100% beyond the reach of reason. violethowler on tumblr has been doing some essays about how well Sora's story fits into the guidelines of the Heroine's Journey, and in their latest post (Dark Enchantress) they talked about how Riku has gone the entirely opposite way from his KH1 jealousy right into convincing himself that Sora is utterly unobtainable in a romantic sense, which is EXACTLY what I've been thinking as I write this fic, long before I ever saw that post, lol. He's going to need a lot of reassurances that Sora does indeed love him; it won't be quck, simple OR painless, so Sora has to bring it up in a setting in which they can really, truly _talk_. Sora kind of knows this to be the case by instinct, which is why his gut has got him biding his time until the moment is right.  
> Aqua would have been totally able to rock a tux if she'd wanted, but I thought it'd be nice to give the girls an opportunity to use some pretty, flowy dresses. They're all made with mobility in mind, of course; pretty, but practical! I honestly loooove the idea of tailors and seamstresses making clothing that appears completely normal at first glance but has all sorts of secrets and upgrades built in — the girls are definitely getting hidden pockets with the same magic that makes Sora's pockets bottomless! God, that'd be the dream.  
> I had so much fun writing Sora's little bonding moment with Daichi!! He's a good dad, y'all, and I stan him. Those kids need good parents!!! I thought that since Sora had already had a little moment with Aiko, it's be only fair to give Daichi one as well, especially since I tend to focus more on the moms. I just love them so much :'3  
> Next, we have the final chapter before the epilogue...... >:3c [rubs lil evil hands together]  
> Oh, ETA: I've started doing a full read-through of the fic from the very beginning, and so I've been doing a bunch of small edits to make some wordings better and make sure stuff flows smoothly. Polish things off before I mark this fic as finished forever, y'know? I doubt y'all would have noticed, but I thought I'd let you know anyway!


	25. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome to "I wrote this 18,2k chapter in 10 days because I'm too mcfucking stubborn to break my perfect posting record in the second to last chapter, no matter how much I have to suffer for it"! I hope y'all are ready for a Ride, because this baby is a goddamn rollercoaster and about 60% dialogue. Have fun!

Sora can barely sit still as Ienzo performs what will hopefully be the last scan of Riku’s heart, on the Saturday before the party at the Disney Castle. He’s no stranger to restlessness, of course, but the anticipation that fills him then has him feeling like he’ll climb out of his own skin if Ienzo doesn’t reveal the results within the next three seconds.

“So, what’s the verdict?” Kairi urges him on, frantically bouncing her leg. “Did they do it? Is his heart finally complete??”

Ienzo smiles at their impatience, tapping the pad he’s holding a few more times before he turns the screen towards them -- pointing to the part where it says what percentage Riku’s heart is, which is also highlighted for their benefit.

100%.

Sora and Kairi both let out loud whoops of joy before jumping onto Riku, prompting him to laugh in surprise as he does his best to keep all three of them from tumbling to the floor. Ienzo laughs a little as well, watching their small celebration with a genuine smile.

It takes them a moment to calm down, understandably, but Ienzo doesn’t seem to mind the wait. Once all three of them have their attention on him again, he pulls the pad back out, selecting a couple more data points to discuss with them.

“Both Sora and Riku’s hearts have finally been restored to their full integrity, as I have shown you. Their hearts also bear no signs of any lingering stress or fractures, which is very good news; this is still a fairly new field of research, so I wasn’t sure if that would be the case. All of the readings I have taken are within healthy ranges as well -- which means that congratulations are in order, certainly.”

“Thank you _so, so_ much,” Kairi bows earnestly, with Sora nodding emphatically next to her. “You’ve been such a big help to us this whole time -- I don’t want to think about what could’ve happened if you hadn’t been here.”

Ienzo chuckles bashfully, returning the small bow that Kairi gives him with one of his own. “I was happy to help,” he replies, putting his pad away. “Though the circumstances were unfortunate, you’ve helped me gather a large amount of invaluable data that might be of use in the event of something similar ever happening again; and for that I am grateful.”

“That’s a nice thought, yeah,” Sora smiles, sharing a quick glance with Riku, who nods in agreement. “I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what we have, but it’s good to know that even if someone does, there’ll be stuff to help them.”

They talk a little more about what Ienzo has learned from them before starting to make their way out, but Kairi stops them short as they’re about to walk through the door, turning back to Ienzo to say one final thing.

“I really hope you won’t be offended by this or anything,” she starts, her voice as genuine as she can make it. “But god, I _really_ hope I never have to visit this lab ever again,” she huffs with no small amount of exasperation.

Ienzo’s resulting burst of laughter seems to take even himself by surprise, but the three islanders smile easily enough at the sound. They wave at him with varying amounts of enthusiasm before walking out of the lab and closing the door behind them, making quick work of the rest of the way out of the castle.

Sora screams in joy again once they’re finally back at the gardens, throwing an arm around both of his best friend’s shoulders -- even if he has to drag Riku down to do so.

“We should go buy ice cream to celebrate!!” he exclaims with a wide grin, snickering when Riku huffs and Kairi giggles. “Do you think Tifa would agree to holding a little party for us? We deserve it!”

“We already have a huge party tomorrow; won’t that be enough?” Kairi elbows his side playfully, though the glint in her eyes tells Sora that she’s sold on the idea already.

“Never!” Sora boldly declares, drawing yet another giggle from Kairi.

A handful of seconds pass before Riku realizes that Sora and Kairi are staring at him expectantly, which has him swiftly blurting out a random word of agreement. Sora shares a glance of concern with Kairi over this little exchange, feeling his previous excitement dampen considerably.

He’d truly hoped that the good news they received today would bring Riku out of his months-long funk, but it’s starting to look like that won’t be the case. Sora doesn’t know what else to do; he’s tried being patient; has tried making himself approachable and available, but none of it has worked -- what _else_ can he do?

Kairi catches the desperate look he sends her and smiles in sympathy, patting the arm he has across her shoulders for a brief moment before she puts her game face back on.

“Sooo, ice cream, then party at the Seventh Heaven?” she wiggles her eyebrows, reaching around Sora to poke Riku on the ribs.

Sora catches the minuscule nod she gives him and draws strength from it, summoning his cheer back with practiced ease. _Fake it ‘til you make it, right?_ he thinks, turning his head so he can grin at Riku.

“Do you think they still have sea salt ice cream?” he lowers his voice to a conspiratory whisper.

His best friend is so out of it that he doesn’t even notice that the grin doesn’t reach Sora’s eyes.

“Ugh, can’t we try something else instead?” Kairi groans at his other side, wrinkling her nose in mock distaste. It’s all an act, of course; they know that the flavor is one of her favorites, coming second only to strawberry.

“Absolutely not,” Sora replies pompously, his smile turning a tad more genuine at the sound of Kairi’s snort. “It’s _tradition_ , Kairi!”

“Fine, fine; sea salt it is,” she grumbles, not even bothering to hide her grin.

“Off we go, then!” Sora nods firmly, dragging Riku with them by the arm and completely ignoring the surprised look he gets from him once they start moving.

He _can’t_ let himself follow Riku into his funk; he’ll be no help to anyone if he does, and then they’ll all be miserable. He has to stay strong and steadfast to light Riku’s way out of it, no matter how long it takes -- Riku has done the same to him before, after all, so this is really the least Sora can do.

Hmm, maybe Aerith could help them convince Tifa, if any convincing is necessary? Sora doubts that it will be, but it’d be better to cover all their bases nevertheless -- that means they’ll have to head to Merlin’s before making their way to the Seventh Heaven. Yuffie will probably be enthusiastic enough about the idea of a party to help them out with it; then they can strong-arm their grumpy friends into it as well.

Sora nods to himself once more, making sure that the grin never leaves his face.

It’s the least he can do.

x

Sora is woken up on Sunday morning by Riku shaking his shoulder and calling his name in an increasingly exasperated tone of voice, completely ignoring Sora’s attempts to snuggle deeper into the covers.

“It was _your_ idea to do this at the only time Vanitas is guaranteed to be asleep,” Riku tells him right before he pokes one of Sora’s lower ribs with surgical precision, receiving a yelp and heavy frown in return for this action.

“I’m gonna miss being the one to wake up first,” Sora grumbles under his breath, making no move to get up.

“The _bracelets_ , Sora,” Riku rolls his eyes, pulling the covers away from Sora.

“Oh, right!!” Sora exclaims, scrambling out of bed in a flash upon finally remembering _why_ he asked Riku to wake him up so early. “Did you check if everyone else is already awake?” he asks as he makes his way to the bathroom, leaving the door open as he washes his face and brushes his teeth so he can hear Riku’s answer.

“I asked Data-Sora to do it, but yeah. Vanitas apparently went to bed around two hours ago, so we should be safe on that front, too.”

“Can you see if he’ll send a message to everyone asking them to meet us in the common room?” Sora inquires with a mouth full of foam.

“Sure.”

Sora starts to feel giddy as he goes through the rest of his morning routine. It took a month of on and off work, but the bracelets are finished at last! He and Riku had put the finishing touches on Kairi’s right before bedtime on the previous night, and now it’s finally the time to hand them all to their intended owners.

Well, except for Vanitas, of course -- Sora has already recruited Naminé to be the one to deliver Vanitas his present, though she doesn’t know what she’ll be delivering just yet. In fact, that’s the whole reason why he’s decided to hand them off at this hour; Vanitas would undoubtedly grow suspicious if everyone suddenly disappeared and left him behind. As a direct result, he would likely attempt to crash onto their gathering, thus ruining the surprise.

Given that Naminé’s success likely relies on him being unaware that everyone else also got a bracelet before he accepts his own -- as well as her own charm, of course -- going behind his back entirely will probably make things _much_ easier. Naminé has assured them that she’ll do her very best to smooth over any ruffled feathers, too, so Sora’s feeling pretty good about their chances.

He goes to pick up his own bracelet after he gets dressed, but Riku snatches it from Sora’s desk right before his fingers make contact.

“Hey!” he protests with a pout.

“Nope, you’re only putting it on _after_ we deliver the rest to the others,” Riku smirks, passing Sora his own aqua-colored bracelet.

“Ugh, fine,” Sora huffs, double checking their little pouch to make extra sure that they’ve grabbed all of the presents before they leave the room.

About half of their friends have already arrived at the common room by the time Sora and Riku get there, with some of them looking more awake than others. Roxas, in particular, looks like he’s about to nod off; Sora snorts as his Nobody starts to tilt dangerously to the left, snapping back into awareness a few seconds later.

“Finally,” he yawns, rubbing away the few tears that accompany the action. “Why did you ask us to come here?”

“It’s a secret!” Sora grins playfully, getting a handful of chuckles and eye-rolls alike for it. “We gotta wait until everyone gets here!”

“Rikuto, Xion and Kairi are on their way, but Isa is stuck prying Lea out of bed,” Riku tells him, sounding faintly amused.

Kairi’s eyes light up once she enters the room. Her knowing smile has a couple of their friends zeroing in on her to see if they can get her to spill the beans, but she only shakes her head with a cheeky wink.

“That’s not fair!” Ventus complains, though it’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t mind the secrecy much. “We want to know too!” he continues as Aqua, Xion and Rikuto nod their agreement.

“I’m gonna go help Isa,” Kairi announces with a devious smirk, making a hasty escape to do just that. Sora and Riku share a grin as the latter gives Isa a heads-up about it; both of them know just how much of a little pest Kairi can be when she wants to.

She’s going to bring Axel to the common room even if she has to drag him by the _ear_.

A few minutes later, all twelve of them are finally accounted for. Sora starts to explain himself as quickly as he can upon noticing that Roxas’ impatience is rising to dangerous levels; he’d rather not force his Nobody to resort to drastic measures, after all.

He revels in the surprise he sees in his friends’ faces as he recounts how he got the idea for their Christmas gifts, waiting until he’s explained the significance of the differently colored beads to hand the bracelets out to each of them. Some of them end up being a tiny bit too big, seeing as Sora and Riku had to use their own wrists as a base, but fixing it will be easy enough now that everyone’s unique design has been already decided.

“This is such a thoughtful gift, Sora,” Aqua exhales quietly, studying her purplish-blue bracelet. Sora gave her wide bands of green and caramel orange for Ventus and Terra, as well as a couple of pink, aqua and sky blue beads for Kairi, Riku and himself. “Thank you, truly.”

Sora glows with the praise, feeling his grin gown ever wider. “It was no problem! I really wanted to do something nice for everyone.”

“I’d say this goes way above just ‘nice’, kid,” Axel snorts, fiddling with his red, gray, lavender, yellow and pink bracelet -- with just a touch of green to complete the picture.

“You’ve done a really good job, guys,” Kairi smiles.

“Yes, it’s really sweet,” Naminé nods, examining Vanitas’ bracelet as well. “I’ll make sure he wears it, I promise,” she says earnestly.

“We’re counting on you, Naminé!” Sora nods encouragingly.

Sora and Riku get a handful of questions from the others on why they made a specific band the size it is or why they added a given color, but after all the hours they’ve spent thinking about each of the patterns, answering them is as easy as breathing.

Aqua and Terra move towards the kitchen area to get started on making breakfast a little while later, since they’re all awake and present already. Xion and Isa join them shortly thereafter, taking up the task of chopping up ingredients while Terra mans the stove and Aqua measures out what they’ll need.

It warms Sora’s heart to see everyone wear the bracelets he’s made for them; their wrists keep drawing his gaze as if by magnetism, making his grin grow wider every time he catches a glimpse of color.

Riku drops on the couch at his side with a little happy sigh, chuckling at the beaming grin Sora sends his way and reaching out to ruffle Sora’s hair.

“Mission complete, huh?”

“Yeah,” Sora nods, scooting to the side until he can tuck himself under Riku’s arm. “I’m really, really happy.”

“That’s good,” Riku hums. His thumb keeps drawing little absentminded circles on Sora’s arm, which only makes Sora want to cuddle even closer. “You should be proud of it; you did really well.”

“So did _you_ ,” Sora retorts without missing a beat, jabbing his index onto Riku’s side when his best friend stays silent for a few seconds too long. “I couldn’t have done it without your help, Riku, and if you try to deny it, we’re gonna have _words_ ,” he huffs, tilting his head to glare up at him.

Riku laughs under his breath. “Alright, alright, I get it; I did well too.”

“Exactly!” Sora puffs out his cheeks, resisting the urge to cross his arms in petulance.

It feels like such an insignificant issue to argue about -- probably not at all important in the long run -- but Sora refuses to let Riku diminish his own accomplishments, however small they may be. Sora was the one to figure out the designs, sure, but _Riku_ was the one to actually make most of the bracelets; this gift is as much his as it is Sora’s.

Plus, victories are still victories, no matter how small, and Sora’s in desperate need of those whenever Riku is concerned.

His best friend hums when Sora lifts Riku’s arm to inspect the bracelet that adorns it. Sora opens his mouth to ask if Riku liked it, but Riku beat him to the punch.

“Did you like yours? I asked Kairi to help me with it,” he murmurs in a hopeful tone.

“I love it,” Sora replies honestly, bringing up his own wrist. It’s as colorful as he’d expected it to be -- a tiny bit messy, sure, but that only adds to its charm: only makes it more genuine.

Privately, he adds that he’d love anything Riku made for him.

“I’m glad,” Riku smiles.

“Oh, and-- I asked Kairi to help me with yours, too!” Sora laughs. “What do you think of it?”

“I like it,” Riku says in a quieter voice, his smile softening into something more fond. “I was kinda surprised to see the beads for Xion, Isa and Naminé, though I saw Aqua and Terra coming from miles away.”

“I see how you interact with them,” Sora shrugs lightly. “You’re all pretty quiet, but you bond through that. It’s nice.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you excited for the party?” Sora asks a few moments later, abandoning the study of his own bracelet to peer up at Riku, wanting to gauge the sincerity of his answer more accurately. Riku stays silent for a handful of seconds, clearly aware that Sora will know it if he lies.

“...I think it’s going to be fun,” he replies at last. Sora takes note of how he doesn’t say that he thinks _he’ll_ have fun in it -- just that it’ll be fun in general.

He hides the sadness that bubbles up at this realization with a practiced smile, shifting his position so Riku can’t see his expression. “Yeah, I think so too.”

Rikuto goes back to his and Vanitas’ bedroom after playing video games for a few hours, promising Naminé that he’ll let her know when Vanitas is awake so she can give him his bracelet. Sora can’t help the giddiness that bursts into being inside his chest when he sees Naminé glance at her gummi phone and then speedily leave the room; he stops what he’d been doing for a moment just so he can send a genuine prayer to the heavens for Vanitas to accept it.

Considering the fact that Vanitas’ wrist has a brand new bracelet when he finally deigns to join the rest of them in the common room, Sora would say that Naminé had been successful in working her magic.

They usually have lunch with Mickey and Minnie, but the two royals are understandably too busy to share a meal with them today, so they eat in the common room instead. The party is all that they can talk about; they’ve caught glimpses of the decorations that were sent to the ballroom, but the workers had stopped them from going inside no matter how much they begged or pleaded, insisting that the Queen meant for it to be a surprise.

The ball is only set to begin at 6 p.m., so they have a lot of time to kill before they need to start getting ready. Vanitas tries to evade the need to attend, but all of his half-baked excuses crumble to dust at the disappointed look Naminé sends his way. Her gaze is so potent, in fact, that Vanitas cuts himself off mid-word, settling into a resigned scowl as he declares that _fine_ , he’ll go to that stupid ball.

Everyone slinks off to their own rooms to get ready as the afternoon starts to give way to evening, with the girls being some of the first to leave the common room. Sora drags Riku off to their room not too long after that, unable to sit still in his excitement; Riku laughs under his breath at how hyper Sora is, but doesn’t even try to protest, letting Sora pull him by the wrist without any resistance.

Sora pouts when Riku wins the argument of who should shower first, even though he knows Riku has a point; Sora hadn’t paid nearly as much attention as he should have to the tailors while they were detailing how to properly put on their fancy suits, so it’ll be better to have Riku around to help him when he does so. He busies himself with his gummi phone as he waits for his best friend to finish showering, striking up a conversation with his data-self to pass the time.

Stopping himself from staring at Riku’s bare skin once he gets out of the bathroom takes an _enormous_ amount of willpower -- one that Sora hadn’t even know he’d possessed -- but he succeeds somehow, quickly escaping to the bathroom and closing the door behind him before he can give in to the temptation. A glance at the huge mirror confirms his suspicions: his face is so red that he’s gone _past_ the shade of Axel’s hair, landing on a hue closer to Kairi’s instead.

He has to bite off a yelp when the shower’s _freezing_ water hits him head-on, but that’s pretty much his only hope of getting rid of this blush before he has to face Riku again, so he grits his teeth and keeps himself firmly under the spray. He survived walking around Arendelle for _hours_ without a coat -- he can survive a freezing shower, no problem.

Sora only remembers that he’d planned on having an Elixir on him when it was time to see Riku in his suit as he steps out of the bathroom -- which is to say, when he’s already at death’s door. The tailors had forced the two of them to stand back to back when it was time to try on their custom suits and the everyone else had all been occupying different rooms, so this is truly the first time Sora is seeing Riku in his suit -- and _boy_ , he was _not_ ready for what an amazing sight it would be.

He has no idea how long he stands there on the doorway to the bathroom with his mouth hanging open, to be honest. He’s completely entranced by the sight of Riku fiddling with the cuffs of his dress shirt, already sporting the blue-tinted pants and the shiny black shoes, though his vest is still unbuttoned.

Riku blushes a deep red when he notices Sora just _staring_ wordlessly, tilting his head away to hide behind his hair. The movement spurs Sora back into action, snapping him out of his daze so he can walk towards their shared dresser with shaky steps.

“You look _good_ ,” Sora says once he reaches it, hiding his own fierce blush by staring intently at the protective casing that holds his own suit.

Riku lets out an embarrassed little laugh, though it kind of sounds like he’s choking on it instead. “I haven’t even finished getting ready yet,” he retorts in a bashful tone. Sora is willing to bet all his munny on the fact that he’s brushing a hand through his hair to offset his embarrassment right about now, but Sora doesn’t dare look his way.

Part of Sora wants to insist that it doesn’t _matter_ if there’s still a few more articles of clothing to be put on, Riku still looks drop-dead _gorgeous_ already, but he forces the words down with a hasty swallow lest he give too much of himself away. He scurries back to the bathroom to put on his pants and shirt, huffing upon seeing his own tomato-red face reflected back at him in the mirror.

So much for that cold shower.

Riku is standing in front of the full-body length mirror when Sora comes out of the bathroom again, his vest now buttoned as he tugs his hair in various directions with a calculating glint in his eyes. Sora approaches him shyly, standing at his side so he may share Riku’s view.

“You should keep it like it always is,” Sora suggests eventually, resisting the urge to reach up and sink his hands into the silver strands as well.

Riku huffs through his nose at the suggestion, sending Sora a mildly reproachful gaze. “This is a fancy ball, Sora, shouldn’t we do something else?”

“Your usual is good enough already,” Sora argues, batting Riku’s hands away so he can guide his best friend’s silver hair into its customary stylish spikes. “There,” he says when he’s done, letting his hands rest on Riku’s shoulder for a half-second before he clears his throat. “There’s no helping mine, anyway, so we might as well match!”

That succeeds in getting a chuckle out of Riku despite the charged air between them. Sora’s _really_ toeing the line between platonic and romantic in here -- he decides to take a small step back for the safety of his own heart if nothing else, seeing as it is currently trying to beat its way out of his chest right about now.

Riku watches as Sora fails to straighten the cuffs of his dress shirt for a few seconds before he sighs and steps in to help, chiding Sora for making a mess of it. “You’re hopeless,” he shakes his head, pretending he doesn’t see Sora’s resulting pout. “At least you tucked in your shirt right.”

“I’m not _hopeless_!” Sora puffs out his cheeks, even though he has no evidence to back up that claim in this instance.

“I _told_ you to pay more attention to the tailor when he was telling us how to put all of this on, but did you listen to me? No, of course not!”

Sora only pouts harder at the reprimand, watching intently as Riku makes quick work of his cuffs. “Well, I knew I’d have you here to help me!”

Considering how glum Riku’s mood has been for the past few weeks, Sora thinks that his own following actions are clearly justifiable -- namely, squaring his shoulders and bracing himself for the possibility of Riku arguing that he won’t always be there to help Sora, or something equally as depressing. He _sees_ it build in Riku’s eyes, sees him open his mouth to give voice to it; Sora can even feel his own counter-arguments sitting on the tip of his tongue, waiting to be released -- he will _not_ let them be separated, under absolutely _no_ circumstances -- but then Riku backs down, directing his gaze downwards as his sails lose their budding wind.

“That’s a flimsy excuse and you know it, Sora,” he says instead, putting the final touches on his handiwork before he steps away.

“I always learn better when _you_ teach me, anyway,” Sora mutters, forcing his body to lose its battle-ready stance.

Riku flicks his forehead in response to that, giving Sora a smile that doesn’t even come close to reaching his eyes. “Lazy bum,” he attempts to snark, but the words are hollow; utterly devoid of their usual playfulness.

Sora frowns at Riku’s retreating back as he walks towards where the rest of his suit is, picking up his tie and tying it with deft fingers. The whole exchange leaves him feeling uncomfortably bereft; all the nice and fluttery feelings that had been floating about in his chest might as well have been burned to a crisp -- though perhaps it’d be more fitting to say they froze to death, given the circumstances.

The silence that stretches between them after that is painfully awkward, but Sora tries his very best to hide how much it’s affecting him as he puts on his vest. He glares at the red tie that accompanies the suit with a wariness that is typically reserved only for enemies he’s about to battle; his first instinct is to ask for Riku’s help, unsurprisingly, but he brushes it aside with a slight shake of his head, deciding that he’ll do it himself it that’s how Riku’s going to be like.

He settles in front of the mirror to tie it, hoping that the memories of watching his dad do it -- and Riku, too, just a few minutes earlier -- will guide his hands into the correct movements, but no such luck. Sora can feel Riku’s eyes on him, but he chooses to pretend otherwise, growing increasingly frustrated with this stupid piece of fabric that he can’t figure out how to tie correctly.

Sora is about to discard it entirely when Riku sighs and walks closer, mumbling a soft ‘let me do it’ as he pries Sora’s fingers away from the tie to do it himself. He meets Sora’s steady gaze only once during the entire process, with a quiet apology clear in his aqua eyes -- it makes the winds fly away from Sora’s sails as well, leaving both of them silent and slightly regretful.

“There,” Riku says in a near whisper, brushing off Sora’s shoulders and straightening his vest with a handful of practiced motions, leaving Sora’s side only momentarily to grab his suit jacket and hold it out for Sora to put it on.

He makes sure that Sora’s outfit has no creases or wrinkles after that, circling Sora a couple of times to smooth everything out and finishing his inspection by poking one of Sora’s spikes with a small but genuine smile.

God, Sora is so tired of all this walking on eggshells; of this dance they seem to be locked into -- Sora will step forward with open arms and a reassuring smile, doing his utmost to encourage Riku to meet him in the middle, but Riku will only step back and look away from Sora’s earnest gaze, no matter the direction Sora tries to approach him from.

He halfway wants to skip the whole party and keep Riku here in this room until _something_ breaks -- be it Sora’s heart or Riku’s resolve. He seriously considers it, even, just for a moment, when the despair rushes up his ribcage to claw at his trachea and take his breath away, but then--

“Ready?” Riku asks him, still somewhat apologetic, smiling gently and tilting his head towards the door.

Sora doesn’t trust himself to speak -- not with the aftertaste of desperation still hanging heavy in the back of his throat -- so he simply nods, conjuring up a pitiful imitation of a smile to accompany it, then letting it dissipate from his face as soon as Riku turns away from him.

They agreed to meet with the others in the common room to make their way to the ballroom together, so Sora forcibly gets his act together in the short distance that separates it from their bedroom. By the time they open the door to meet whoever else is ready, Sora already has a way more believable grin set in place, as well as a firm resolution to not let himself get so down again for the entire duration of the party.

Seeing his friends all dressed to the nines in their beautiful suits and dresses shifts his projected cheerfulness into something more genuine; it doesn’t take long before he’s gushing about the outfit of whoever stands in front of him, which makes plenty of the others blush and laugh shyly in response. Making his friends happy makes _Sora_ happy, so it’s a win-win, really.

Vanitas and Rikuto are still nowhere to be seen, but Naminé reassures him that the two boys will make their way to the party later on, when there’s more of a crowd for them to hide in. Naminé has made Vanitas _promise_ to attend and Rikuto is staying behind to make sure he keeps his word, so, all in all, it bodes well for Sora’s wish of having everyone go to the ball.

Kairi laces arms with both Sora and Riku as they head towards the ballroom, cheekily declaring them her escorts. The tiny crystals inlaid in the bodice of her dress sparkle with her every movement, adding some flair to her already stunning beauty. She looks like a _real_ princess tonight; Sora playfully tells her that any of her suitors will have to earn his approval first, which has her slapping his arm with a twinkling laugh.

It gets a small snicker out of Riku, too, so Sora considers it even more of a win.

They find King Mickey and Queen Minnie right after they enter the ballroom; the two royals are taking some time to personally greet all of the recently arrived guests, indulging in a couple of minutes of conversation with each one before they turn towards the next group. Donald and Goofy stand a few paces behind the two of them, keeping their backs straight and eyes peeled just in case there’s any trouble, but the King allows them to step forward to greet Sora and the others as well.

Aqua and Riku start to herd their friends further into the ballroom after a handful of minutes, smiling apologetically at the line of people that keeps on growing behind them. Queen Minnie hides a chuckle at the scene, waving at them with a promise to catch up later.

Sora hadn’t really looked around before, having been too distracted by talking with his friends to do so, but now he finally takes a moment to drink it all in; feeling his mouth drop open at the marvelous sight.

The entire ballroom looks _amazing_ ; there are lots of the deep reds and greens typically associated with Christmas, of course, but also some breathtaking pale blues and sparkling silvers to evoke the idea of snow -- thus turning the entire room into a giant winter wonderland. One corner of the room holds the _biggest_ Christmas tree Sora has ever seen -- that’s also counting Christmas Town’s!! --, all covered in fancy ornaments and festive tinsel, with a huge golden star at the top.

“Better close that mouth before you start catching flies, Sora,” Kairi laughs. Sora does it somewhat sheepishly, puffing out his cheeks at her just so she’ll chuckle again.

Sora raises a hand to touch one of the sparkling snowflakes that hang from the high ceiling when they walk by one that’s particularly close to the ground, sighing in wonder at how it gracefully spins in the slight breeze. He also touches one of the tiny bulbs of a string of fairy lights when they pass by it, smiling at how hot it already is.

“You really can’t stop yourself from seeing stuff with your hands, huh, Sora?” Roxas teases him after Sora does it a third time, prompting Sora to bump his Nobody’s shoulder with his own.

“Yes, I can!” Sora argues.

“He _really_ can’t,” Riku says at the exact same time, sharing a fond look with Kairi. “You get used to it.”

“I _totally_ can,” Sora huffs, resisting the urge to cross his arms. “It’s just more fun to touch things, okay!”

Roxas lets out a disbelieving hum. “Doesn’t he ever get in trouble for it, though?” he asks Kairi and Riku. “Like, hasn’t he ever gotten hurt because he touched something he shouldn’t have, or maybe got lectured?”

“Oh, trust me, he _has_ ,” Kairi rolls her eyes, putting a hand on her hips and shaking her head at Sora like she’s given up on him already. “It just doesn’t faze him.”

“Figures,” Roxas snorts.

“You’re all so mean!” Sora protests, allowing a little bit of whining to color his voice. It gets the intended result: everyone who had been watching the exchange starts to chuckle, which in turn makes the warm feeling inside Sora’s chest expand until it’s brushing against his ribcage in a surprisingly pleasant way.

“And yet you love us anyway,” Kairi winks, blowing him a cheeky kiss when he pouts. “Come on, my stomach is begging for food,” she says, lacing arms with her two best friends again and leading them to the enormous buffet table.

They spend the first couple of hours of the party mostly walking around and talking to the people they recognize from their trips to Disney Town -- artisans, store owners, castle workers and the like. Sora finds it easy to make small talk with them, listening attentively as they recount the interesting things they’ve seen happen in town over the years, while also sharing some stories from the Destiny Islands in return -- under Kairi’s watchful gaze, that is.

Vanitas and Rikuto make an appearance about an hour after the beginning of the party, just as they’d promised; by then, it looks like the majority of the guests have arrived as well, filling the ballroom with the ever-present white noise of chatter.

Ventus remarks that he’d thought it take would a little longer to find them in the crowd, seeing as both boys appear to have made a beeline from the entrance to where they’ve all been standing at for the past few minutes, but Vanitas only points to Axel with a mischievous smirk. A couple of seconds pass before they understand what he’s implying, but once they _do_ get it, their little corner of the ballroom becomes filled with the sound of their collective amusement -- a small cacophony that lifts Sora’s spirits more effectively than any Elixir ever could.

He can’t really hide the way in which his grin turns brittle upon realizing that Riku is nowhere to be seen, but it seems no one had been looking at him while it happened, so he doesn’t have to deal with any concerned glances or uncomfortable questions. Kairi _does_ notice his somewhat unsubtle search for Riku, though, sidling up to him and pointing at a balcony not too far away; Sora had bypassed it before, but now that he’s _really_ looking, he sees the unmistakable glint of his best friend’s silver hair under the moonlight.

“He’s worse today, isn’t he?” Kairi asks him in an undertone, guiding him a few paces away from the rest of their group.

“Yeah,” Sora sighs, fiddling absentmindedly with the hem of his jacket. “I don’t know what to do anymore, Kai. I hate seeing him like this so much, but he just keeps avoiding all my attempts of talking about this,” he confesses through gritted teeth, unable to pull his gaze away from Riku’s lonesome figure.

“Oh, Sora, I know,” Kairi frowns, pulling him into a hug that he accepts gratefully, fitting his face into the crook of her neck and taking in her floral perfume. “I hate it too. Why did we have to get such a hard-headed best friend!?” she huffs, her voice somewhere between exasperated and rueful.

His chuckle is lost to the fabric of her dress, but he pulls back far enough so she can see his accompanying smile -- small, but still genuine. “God, I wish I knew the answer to that question.”

“He’s easy on the eyes, at least -- we have to give him that.”

Sora chokes on his resulting snort, shoving her away in playful disgust. “Ew, no, I don’t need you to remind me you used to have a crush on him!”

The laugh that Kairi lets out upon hearing that earns them a handful of curious glances, but the two of them don’t even notice it, caught up in their little bubble as they are.

“I said I used to _think_ I had a crush on him!” she corrects him with amusement still evident in her tone, reaching out to pinch his cheek. “I thought the same about you at one point, you know?” she adds, giggling at his weirded-out expression. “People at school always liked to gossip about the three of us, and it just made a mess of my head for a little while there. It was all the coexistence, really -- to get caught up thinking about it was kind of inevitable, with all the time we spent together and stuff.”

“I don’t know what to say to all of _that_ ,” Sora confesses.

“You don’t need to say anything,” Kairi smiles. “You just reminded me about it, so I thought I’d share.”

“Best friends forever, right?”

“Absolutely,” Kairi nods, fitting her hand to the crook of his elbow. “Now, shall we drag our other, gloomy best friend back to the fray? We can’t just let him brood while there’s this beautiful party happening right next to him.”

“Yeah!” Sora huffs determinedly, squaring his shoulders up as if he’s about to enter a battlefield.

They weave through the crowd effortlessly, sidestepping small and large groups alike until they reach the balcony in question. It’s one of many -- the ballroom is dotted with dozens of other balconies just like it -- so it comes as no surprise that Riku has managed to find and secure an empty one just for himself.

Kairi lets go of Sora’s arm to step forward on her own once the two of them finally reach their best friend, shooting Sora a small smile over her shoulder as she does it. He sends her a quiet word of thanks in response, immensely grateful for her willingness to take the reins of this situation.

“And what is it that you’re doing all alone in here, huh, mister?” she says in a slightly teasing tone, putting her hands on her hips as she approaches Riku.

Their best friend startles at the suddenness of the words -- a testament to how deep inside his own head he had been, seeing as the clacking of their shoes would have been plenty of warning at any other moment.

“Sorry, I just--” Riku starts, glancing from Kairi to Sora, then back to the gardens below. “I just needed some air.”

Sora wonders for a split second if Riku would be more willing to talk about what’s been bothering him this whole time if Kairi had gone to him alone; the thought cuts deeper into his heart than he thought it would. Kairi frowns in concern at the grimace that Sora’s face twists into, but Sora only shakes his head -- they’re already having a hard enough time dancing around Riku’s problems without adding Sora’s own to the pile.

“Well, you could’ve told us about that!” he says instead, unable to keep the exasperation completely out of his voice. “I was worried when I looked around and you weren’t there!”

Riku widens his eyes at Sora’s outburst, looking a bit like a deer caught in headlights, but then he takes a mental step back while Sora mimics the action out in the physical world, biting his lip to stop the dam from breaking.

Kairi wordlessly takes the lead after watching this little exchange, grabbing one of Riku’s hands with both of hers and waiting expectantly until he meets her eyes. “We’re worried because we _care_ about you, you silly noodle,” she tells him with a rueful smile, her thumbs rubbing soothing circles on his hand. “We can see that there’s something eating at you; something you won’t tell us about, and we don’t like to see you suffering like this, Riku. We just want to help you, really.”

Riku’s next sigh seems to utterly deflate him, leaving him with hunched shoulders and a tired expression. Kairi coos inaudibly at this, reaching up to brush a hand over his cheek.

“I know,” Riku says, keeping his gaze firmly directed at his and Kairi’s joined hands. “I’m really sorry for all this, I mean it -- I just can’t seem to stop doing it.”

“Oh, honey, I get it,” Kairi exhales softly. “It’s alright if you feel like you can’t talk to us about it, but can you at least consider talking to _someone_? A second opinion would probably do you good, you know -- it’s not healthy to let those thoughts fester inside your head like that.”

Riku huffs out a chuckle at that, his lips curling up into a somewhat sarcastic smile. “God, don’t I know _that_.”

“Then put it in practice!” Kairi chides him, pulling on his ear to drive her point home. “Or so help me god, we _will_ stage an intervention and then _none_ of us are gonna be happy!”

“Alright, alright, I get it,” Riku laughs under his breath, rubbing his earlobe absentmindedly. “I promise I’ll try to talk to someone.”

“We’ll hold you to that!” Kairi narrows her eyes, wagging her index in front of Riku’s face and getting a few more chuckles out of him for the action. “Now give me a hug or I’m gonna crush your feet.”

“Of course, Your Highness,” Riku tells her cheekily, gathering her up in a hug that almost hides her from Sora’s view.

“Get in here, Sora!” Kairi exclaims from where her face is squished onto Riku’s jacket, getting snorts out of both boys as Sora steps forward to comply.

Kairi and Riku put their arms around Sora’s waist and shoulders respectively, with Riku sending him another apologetic smile as he does so. Sora can’t quite summon the willpower to smile back just yet, so he settles for a nod of acknowledgement, holding his two best friends as tightly as he dares.

Kairi tightens her own hold in response, so it doesn’t take long for their group hug to turn into a game of chicken, with Kairi pulling away with a gasping laugh when Riku squeezes her waist a little bit too tight. This unexpected bout of silliness allows Sora to regain his wide grin and good mood, which must have been the intended effect; he makes a mental note to buy Kairi a _pile_ of her favorite food after the holidays as thanks for taking the reins of this entire conversation and preventing it from turning into a _complete_ disaster.

“Now, you are going back to the party with us and you’re going to have _fun_ ,” Kairi tells Riku in a no-nonsense tone, leaving absolutely no room for argument.

“Yeah!” Sora backs her up, narrowing his eyes at Riku. “We still need to put all of those dance lessons we got to the test -- if you thought you’d manage to avoid dancing with us, I’m here to tell you you thought _wrong_!”

“That’s right!” Kairi nods next to him. “C’mon, Sora, grab him-- we can’t let him run away!”

“Roger that!” Sora salutes her quickly, grabbing Riku’s right hand as Kairi takes his left one.

Riku snorts at the commotion they’re making, letting himself be dragged back without any protest. “C’mon, I’m not going to escape!”

“We don’t believe you, mister,” Sora grins playfully. Riku huffs amusedly in response, shaking his head like he can’t believe them.

Sora and Kairi lead Riku to the dance floor, though Sora does take note of where the rest of their friends are, thanks to Axel’s height and spiky red hair. Kairi giggles when he points it out to her; she mutters something about how at least they’ll never lose each other in a crowd with Axel around, which in turn gets a burst of laughter out of both Sora and Riku.

They talk until the current song ends and a lively waltz begins, at which point Sora pushes the two of them onto the dance floor, smirking mischievously at the stink eyes they give him in response. Though, it’s for his own good, really; he could tell that Kairi was just _waiting_ to do the same to him and Riku, but he needed a little more time to prepare his own heart for the experience of dancing with him outside their previous lessons.

Sora laughs at the occasional glimpses he gets from the two of them as they spin with the other dancers, letting himself sway in place to the music’s cheery beat and smiling at everyone he crosses eyes with. His heart kicks up its pace as the song begins to trail off; the sight of Riku and Kairi walking in his direction has him wiping his hands on the sides of his fancy pants, though he hopes they don’t notice it.

“Here,” Kairi says as she lets go of Riku’s hand to put Sora’s in it instead.

“Don’t I get a chance to have a break?” Riku asks with a half-smirk, even as he firmly grips Sora’s offered hand. Kairi promptly shakes her head, clearly very pleased with herself.

“Nope! I’m the one calling the shots here, and I order the two of you to dance!”

“Understood, Your Highness,” Sora chuckles, hoping it doesn’t sound as nervous as he thinks it does.

There’s no real reason to hold hands while they’re still waiting for the new song to start, but Sora and Riku do it anyway, chatting with Kairi until the music changes and she quite literally pushes them onto the dance floor.

It’s easy to fall into the correct positions after so many hours of practice. Riku takes the lead after a small nod of assent from Sora, who has half of his brain working to make sure he doesn’t step on Riku’s feet, and the other half trying its very best to not let the giddy panic he’s feeling show on his face. They start moving as soon as the song begins, with Riku nudging him forward via the steady hand he has on Sora’s back.

There is nothing for them to talk about for the entire duration of the song -- no secret plans, no gossip, no observations to share. Their instructor had made them practice doing so in their lessons, and they’d usually talk about the latest pranks or about whichever piece of media they were currently into, but none of those things even _cross_ Sora’s mind as they spin their graceful circles around the dance floor.

It’s a complete cliche, of course, but it’s still true: he feels like the world has narrowed down to just the two of them, locked in their little bubble of song and dance. Riku’s soft smile allows Sora to indulge in a fantasy in which Riku _hasn’t_ been slowly falling deeper into a vortex of unknown bad thoughts; if he tilts his head and squints just a tiny bit, he can even pretend that he’s already confessed and that Riku returns his feelings.

Sora has imagined countless outcomes for said confession at this point, but actually _confessing_ remains the only possible way to figure out Riku’s true feelings. He’s grown more hopeful as to how Riku may respond to it after talking with Daichi and thinking about what his dad had suggested, of course, but no amount of combing his memories and analyzing Riku’s actions will give him the answer he seeks with the _certainty_ he needs.

He’s thought a lot about how devoted to him Riku is over the last few weeks. The subject had crossed his mind before, naturally, but he had never stopped to truly _consider_ it until Daichi’s words forced him to give it a closer look.

Most of the instances of Riku acting on said devotion happened while Sora was somehow out of commission -- such as during the year he spent asleep with Riku serving as his protector; or near the end of their Mark of Mastery exam when Riku tried to keep him from falling into an even deeper sleep -- which Sora would say is the reason why he’d never realized just how _deeply_ this devotion runs.

Hell, he doesn’t even have to look far to confirm such an interpretation: Roxas still holds a grudge against Riku for the things he did to guarantee that Sora would wake; and though Xion has never blamed Riku for it, he had a hand in her defeat as well. The King, Donald, Goofy and Axel had all been there when Riku chose to dive into Sora’s heart after their failed exam, despite the danger involved in such an action.

Riku has always been willing to do anything within his power to make sure that Sora stays safe and sound; sacrificing over a third of his heart so he could bring Sora home six months ago had just been yet another entry in an already long list of things Riku would do to achieve that effect.

That’s not the only clue he’s found of Riku’s possible feelings, but Sora would say it’s the biggest one, without a doubt. Everything else just gives the possibility that Riku loves him back in a romantic way more substance; gives it more weight.

He’d still prefer not to make any assumptions -- he doesn’t want it to look like he’s _expecting_ Riku to return his feelings, or anything of that sort -- but it _does_ make it more likely that Riku will handle Sora’s confession well -- whenever it happens, that is.

Their bubble of happiness pops once they realize that the song is approaching its end; Sora does his best not to seem _too_ disappointed by it, but he has no idea how successful he is. Riku leads him to the same spot they had left Kairi at, only for them to realize that she’d gone out to collect the rest of their friends; a quick glance around the dance floor makes Sora aware of the fact that many of their friends had been dancing as well, right next to them, even, but he’d been too caught up with Riku to notice.

Roxas, Xion, Aqua, Terra, Naminé and Rikuto had all been dancing the same waltz; now that it’s finished, the six of them follow Sora and Riku to where the rest of their group is waiting. Sora has to hide a snicker at the sight of Naminé convincing Vanitas to dance with her -- at least _once_ , she argues with an indulgent smile -- and another at the forlorn gaze that Axel directs towards Roxas and Xion.

“Now it’s my turn with you,” Kairi announces suddenly, taking one of Sora’s hands and leading him back to the dance floor as yet another song begins. “I asked Xion to dance with Riku next, so he won’t escape while we’re distracted,” she adds with a whisper.

A look over his shoulder confirms this; Kairi catches Riku giving her a playful glare and sticks her tongue out in response, falling into position with Sora and letting him lead her into a dance.

“So, how was dancing with Riku? If I didn’t know better, I would’ve said that the two of you were already _married_ , with the little show you gave us!”

Sora groans loudly at her words, losing his rhythm and only _barely_ managing to stop himself from stepping on her foot. “Kaaaairiiiiii, that’s so embarrassing!”

She doesn’t even bother to hide her giggle, though she does pat his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. “Sorry, sorry, I couldn’t resist. It’s just so cute to see you spacing out so hard because of how much you like him,” she says with a few more giggles.

“You’re the worst!” he whines. He considers pinching the underside of her arm in retaliation for all the embarrassment she’s putting him through, but she would _definitely_ crush either his hand or his foot if he did that, so he refrains. “It was... nice,” he mumbles after a handful more seconds, just so she’ll stop staring at him with such obvious expectation.

“Good to know,” she smiles.

Sora is unspeakably grateful for how she’s never asked him about when he would finally confess, nor teased him about not doing it right away. Her only question to that effect had been to confirm that he _would_ indeed confess one day; after that, she’s never brought it up again, trusting that he’ll figure out how to do it on his own.

It’s just yet another reason why he loves her so much, really -- he couldn’t have asked for a better person to complete their little trio.

“Can I _finally_ have a break now?” Riku asks once the song draws to a close, giving Xion a nod and a tiny smile as the two of them part.

Kairi studies him from head to toe for a long moment, narrowing her eyes for good measure. “You may,” she declares at last, doing her utmost to sound annoyingly posh.

They stick around long enough to see a laughing Xion pull Axel into a dance despite their considerable height difference, just so he’ll stop looking so glum; Axel loudly promises that he’ll get a dance out of Roxas before the night is out, which gets him a scoff and a ‘you wish!’ from said boy. Sora loves his Nobody dearly, but his money is on Axel on this one.

Only time will tell, though.

Ventus asks for Kairi’s next dance, so Sora and Riku wave at her as she heads back into the fray. Vanitas, Naminé and Rikuto are nowhere to be seen, but Isa, Terra and Aqua linger on the edge of the dance floor, talking in low tones as they watch their friends dance.

“Wanna grab something to eat?” Sora asks Riku, grinning happily at Riku’s more relaxed expression.

“Sure,” Riku replies, using his height to confirm the buffet table’s location before he leads them to it.

Around an hour later, the music stops and a hush falls over the ballroom as the King and Queen stand from their ornate thrones -- not quite as flashy as the ones in the Throne Room, but close enough -- to give their customary Christmas speech. It takes Sora and Riku a bit of time to make their way towards the front of the crowd, but they manage it eventually, sharing nods and smiles with the rest of their friends once they get there.

The speech is followed by polite clapping and plenty of well-wishes for the holidays, but it looks like the King still has something to say; once all the noise has quieted back down, he starts to tell a tale about how the greatest magical artifact of their Kingdom, the Cornerstone of Light -- the source of their prosperity and protection from anyone who’d wish to do them harm -- had been under threat from a powerful evil sorceress some months ago, back when the King had left the Disney Castle on business.

This earns scattered gasps and quiet exclamations of horror from the crowd, but the King is quick to reassure them, recounting how a group of brave individuals had risen up in such an hour of need to make sure the sorceress’ plans were thwarted and that their precious Cornerstone was kept safe.

Sora is mildly confused when King Mickey starts to say the name of all thirteen of them, as well as Donald and Goofy’s; none of the others had _been_ there when Maleficent tried to take over the Disney Castle, so he doesn’t really understand why the King is naming them too.

It’s only after Riku whispers to him that the King must be using this one instance as a way to thank them for keeping not only the Castle, but the entire _universe,_ safe, that Sora finally gets it. The existence of other worlds is still a secret, after all, so it’s not like the King can just thank them for saving the Realm of Light -- using the Cornerstone as a stand-in for the universe allows the citizens to comprehend the severity of the threat they had faced, and as such, to fully appreciate their efforts to keep it safe.

Still, it’s kind of unnerving to have the King thank them for their exemplary service and then _bow_ at them -- not a quick, shallow bow either, but one that has him bending at waist until his torso is parallel to the ground. Sora feels even more awkward when the _entire crowd_ follows Mickey’s lead, leaving only the fifteen of them standing with their backs straight.

What follows is somewhat of a blur; plenty of people come around to thank them and make small talk, with some of the individuals they’d interacted with before studying them under a completely different light now that they know they’re standing next to the Cornerstone’s protectors. Everyone grows amused when someone remarks that the incredible skills they had shown at the Dream Festival suddenly makes sense -- if they’re powerful enough to defeat an evil sorceress, of _course_ they’d be able to put on a show at any of the carnival games that the Festival had available!

There’s a lot more dancing, talking and eating after that; Sora finds himself moving between the many small groups his friends have split into with ease, spending at least a handful of minutes with each one. He can’t help but get involved in whatever they’re discussing at the time, be it what color combination works best or which is the better way to make sure a bout of projectile magic hits the intended target.

He loses Riku somewhere along the way, but Xion cuts his quasi-desperate search short by telling him that Kairi came around to swipe him while Sora was too busy arguing about the finer points of fire magic with Axel to notice the thievery. It’s not too difficult to find them in the crowd, thankfully; Sora puffs out his cheeks at Kairi when he catches her gaze and receives a stuck out tongue for his troubles, much to the amusement of their friends.

He’s in the middle of debating which skateboard tricks could be reasonably adapted for battle with Roxas and Ventus when Kairi approaches the table the three of them are sitting at, tapping his shoulder without any warning and almost making him choke on the cookie he’d been chewing on.

“You startled me!” he protests once he’s managed to force it down. “Where’s Riku?” he asks upon noticing that their best friend isn’t with her.

“That’s what I came to warn you about,” Kairi says with a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “He started looking more and more uncomfortable around the past hour or so, so when he told me he was going to bed already, I didn’t really argue.”

“What!? But it’s--” Sora scrambles to pull his gummi phone out to check the hour-- “not even 11 p.m. yet!”

“I know,” Kairi sighs. “He didn’t even look tired; just like he didn’t want to be here anymore. I bet he’s going to brood himself to sleep out of sheer stubbornness,” she frowns in a mixture of concern and exasperation.

“You should go to him, Sora,” Ventus smiles encouragingly. “It’s obvious that you’re worried about him; we won’t mind.”

“We’ll keep talking about this, then report our conclusions to you later,” Roxas nods, smirking as he does a shooing motion in Sora’s direction. “Go look after your boyfriend, we’ll be fine without you.”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Sora exclaims with a fierce blush as he stands up, not even noticing how Ventus pulls the plate that Sora is abandoning closer to himself.

“ _Yet!_ ” Roxas cackles, laughing even harder when Sora cuffs him over the head in retaliation.

“I’ll let the others know,” Kairi says when she notices Sora searching for the rest of their friends, smiling more genuinely this time around.

“And I’ll make sure to come up with all _sorts_ of reasons for the two of you to have retired so early,” Roxas smirks.

“I hate you!” Sora huffs at his Nobody even as Kairi pulls him away from the table, well-aware that Roxas won’t stop with his teasing until Sora is out of sight.

“Pfft, you love me and you know it!” Roxas waggles his eyebrows.

“Alright, alright, off you go,” Kairi chuckles, accompanying him to the ballroom’s entrance. “Go get your boy, Sora.”

“Right,” Sora nods, blushing despite himself. He gives her a tight hug before they part, smiling at the snicker this gets him. “Thanks for all the help tonight, Kairi.”

“Anytime, you dork.”

The castle gets quieter the further away Sora gets from the ballroom; he passes by the odd guard or magical broom every now and then, but the halls are completely empty otherwise. Considering how much time he spent dallying before finally leaving the ballroom -- and how long Riku’s legs are -- Sora isn’t really surprised by the fact that he only catches up with Riku when he arrives at their bedroom.

He spent half of the way to it dreading the possibility of Riku having gone elsewhere, but the soft light spilling from under their door assuages said fear. He takes a minute to breathe in deeply so as to fortify his resolve before turning the doorknob; Riku had promised to try talking with someone about what’s happening with him, so Sora needs to give him the time and space to do so, instead of letting his despair take over just like it’d done earlier.

Riku turns towards the door with wide eyes upon hearing it open, pausing in the middle of taking off his vest to gape at Sora -- who in turn pretends that Riku’s reaction is completely normal.

“Hey,” he greets with a practiced smile, closing the door behind him before he, too, starts the process of getting dressed for bed. He’d usually just throw his clothes wherever -- the floor, more often than not, in spite of how much both Aiko and Riku got on his case for it -- but he makes the effort to undress carefully this time around, not wanting to belittle all the work the tailors have gone through to make such fancy clothes for him.

“What are you doing here?” Riku asks in a vaguely accusing tone, furrowing his brows.

Sora only smiles wider at the question, having already seen it coming from miles away. “What, can’t I want to go to bed early too? We’ve been up since, like, 7 a.m.!”

“...Yeah,” Riku replies after a beat. Sora can very nearly _see_ the effort it takes him to swallow whatever else he wants to say, but he doesn’t let this faze him.

“Are you excited to go back home tomorrow? I can’t wait to see what we’ll be getting for Christmas from our parents,” Sora grins, walking to the dresser to grab his suit’s protective casing.

The Queen has assured them that the castle’s staff is more than prepared to take care of their suits and dresses, so the only thing they’ll have to do is leave the casings out when they leave tomorrow morning. Sora feels that taking it back home to wash it would be a disaster waiting to happen even with his mother at the helm, so he’s quite thankful for the Queen’s continued generosity.

Riku hums what sounds like an affirmative in response to Sora’s question, still determinedly facing away from him.

“I’ve been thinking about asking our friends to go spend New Year’s Eve with us,” Sora barrels on, equally as resolute. “We could go to the Play Island and watch the fireworks from there, then spend the turn of the year in the ocean like always.”

“That sounds nice,” Riku replies in a near whisper, barely even glancing at Sora as he flees into the bathroom to finish getting changed.

Sora stops himself from huffing in exasperation as the door closes between them, turning it into a slow exhale instead. If Riku doesn’t want to talk, then that’s fine; they’ll finish getting ready in silence, and then Sora will spend however many hours poking his gummi phone until sleep decides to finally take him under its wings.

He takes advantage of the closed door between them to put on his own sleep clothes, haphazardly shoving the rest of his suit inside the casing before the guilt overtakes him and he starts the process of storing them away all over again, giving the task all the care it deserves this time around.

He switches places with Riku when his best friend is done with the bathroom, making quick work of his bedtime routine to get cozy in bed as soon as possible. Riku turns off their bedroom’s main lights while Sora is brushing his teeth, but Sora can still see the yellowish glow of their bedside lamps through the half-opened door, so his best friend will probably stay up for a while longer as well.

The sight that meets Sora once he exits the bathroom stops him on his tracks, however, opening up a void inside his chest that seems to suck all of his organs into it, leaving him cold and empty.

“What are you doing?” he asks Riku in a small voice -- the words are filled with more hurt than Sora would have ever thought possible.

Riku pauses at the pained question, his gaze drifting between Sora and the half-made bed -- the one they’ve never used before, seeing as they’d already gotten used to sharing the same bed by the time their classes at the Disney Castle started.

“I…” he mutters, frowning at the pillow in his hands for a couple of seconds before he tosses it back onto the partially-made bed. “Nothing. Nevermind.”

The frustration that bubbles up at the pit of Sora’s stomach at that moment, following in the heels of the previous soul-crushing hurt, has him seeing red. He clenches his hands into fists and bites his lip to stop the words that want to come out from doing so, breathing deeply through his nose until he succeeds in finding some semblance of calm.

“You don’t have to share a bed with me if you don’t want to,” he manages to say in a remarkably steady voice, ignoring the pain that these words cause him.

He won’t force Riku to sleep next to him if he doesn’t want to, even if sleeping on separate beds _now,_ of all times, would make Sora sadder than he’s willing to admit. He already feels like Riku is pushing him away emotionally; the sudden physical distance would just rub salt into an already festering wound.

“I know,” Riku replies, meeting Sora’s eyes for a split second as he sits on the edge of their shared bed.

“I mean it, Riku. If you want to start sleeping in separate beds, you can _tell_ me; I’m not gonna break or anything like that,” Sora insists, though he’s not being entirely honest. He can feel his heart slowly cracking under the pressure of the past two months -- of the past two days even more so.

“I _know_ that!” Riku frowns, growing frustrated as well. “I don’t actually want to do it, Sora.”

“Then _why_ were you making the other bed as if you _did_?” Sora throws his hands up in the air, unable to stop his voice from raising in volume. God, he’s so _tired_ of this.

“Because I thought maybe _you_ would!” Riku shouts back, standing up and mimicking Sora’s posture. If they were standing closer to each other, Riku would be towering over him, but Sora isn’t affected by this -- he’s fought too many enemies that were _way_ taller than him to be intimidated by Riku’s height.

“Why the _hell_ would you think that!?” Sora fumes, tugging on his own hair in an attempt to control himself. “When have I ever given _any_ hint of wanting that to happen!?”

“ _I don’t know!_ ” Riku yells -- so loudly that Sora is sure that the others would be coming to knock on their door if the two of them weren’t completely alone in this area of the castle. He sounds distressingly honest, too; his words have an underlying thread of desperation that transforms the fire of Sora’s frustration back into helpless despair.

“Riku…” he sighs, letting his arms hang limply at his sides. “This has to do with the thing you won’t talk to me and Kairi about, doesn’t it?” he asks, even though he already knows the answer; Riku’s silence only confirms it. Sora sighs again. “Riku, _please_ , talk to me. I have no idea what’s been happening in the past two months-- help me understand what’s going on, _I’m begging you_.”

Sora takes note of Riku’s posture with a heavy heart: the hunched shoulders, the hands curled into fists, the wide stance. He looks like a wounded, cornered animal; one so used to being mistreated that it can’t even bring itself to trust the kindness it receives. Sora wants to cover him with blankets and make soothing noises until he calms down, but he knows -- from the many strays he and Riku took care of while growing up on the Islands -- that doing so would be no help at all.

A few seconds later, Riku lets out a long exhale, forcibly relaxing his muscles as he does so; by the time he’s done with it, he doesn’t look cornered anymore -- just _tired_. Sora watches as he takes a seat near their pillows and pulls his legs up to hug his knees, making himself as small as his height allows; he takes this as permission to sit as well, keeping a fair amount of distance between them so as not to invade his best friend’s personal space.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Riku mutters. He keeps his head tilted down as he studies Sora from the corners of his eyes, using his silver hair to hide away the side of his face that Sora can see.

“Start wherever,” Sora tells him, smiling a little at the familiarity of this situation -- though usually _Sora_ is the one trying to make sense of his jumbled thoughts, not Riku.

Going by Riku’s brief huff of amusement, his best friend probably finds this reversal in their usual roles humorous too; Sora feels his smile grow at the sound, immeasurably glad that they can find it within themselves to be amused even during a moment such as this.

“Right,” Riku nods, giving Sora the tiniest of smiles.

Sora nods back. “Take as long as you need,” he says, and he _means_ it; he’ll wait for _hours_ if that’s what it takes, because this is _Riku_ \-- everything else can wait.

A couple of minutes pass before Riku moves again, lifting his head to stare at the ceiling for a bit, then sighing and directing his aqua gaze to Sora once more.

“Do you remember our time at the Dark Margin, after we defeated Xemnas in The World That Never Was?”

“I do,” Sora replies, taking a second to thumb through those memories again.

He’d been so content, then -- not quite _happy_ , not like he’d been upon seeing the Door to Light open and realizing that they could go home to reunite with their friends, but _content_. He had finally found Riku after searching for him with varying amounts of desperation for months, and they’d just defeated the last of the members of the Organization XIII. If the price of that was to be stuck in the Realm of Darkness with Riku for the rest of time, it wouldn’t have been a difficult one to pay.

Sora still thinks fondly of the conversation they had while sitting on that dark shore. He felt closer to Riku then than he had had in a long time; moreover, it’d felt _good_ to share some of the things that had been knocking around in his head for months -- if not years -- and have Riku do the same in return.

“I told you I was jealous of you,” Riku says, curling in on himself a little more and waiting for Sora to nod before he continues. “And while that _is_ true, that wasn’t all of it.”

There’s a long period of silence after that -- long enough for Sora to realize that Riku probably needs a little push. “No?” he asks, tilting his head in curiosity.

Riku shakes his head in response, turning his face even further away from Sora’s. “I was jealous _over_ you, too,” he admits at last, through gritted teeth.

“How do you mean?” Sora frowns, genuinely confused.

His best friend chuckles mirthlessly, glancing at Sora once again. “Do you remember that first time we met after the Islands fell to darkness, in Traverse Town?”

Sora frowns even more, uncertain of how this relates to the matter at hand. “Yeah, I do. I found you and I was super happy about it, but then you just _vanished_.”

“I was jealous then,” Riku says, as if that clears up everything. “I had spent days looking for you and Kairi, to make sure you were both okay and so that we could start our adventure, but when I finally found you, you had already made new friends, _and_ got yourself an apparently special weapon. You didn’t need me anymore. Your new friends didn’t want me around, either. So I left.”

“Riku…”

Riku continues before Sora can say anything else; if the look on his face is any indication, Sora will only get the chance to tell him how wrong he was in thinking that once Riku has finished his piece, however long that may take.

“I had already met Maleficent by then, and she took advantage of my jealousy to manipulate me,” he says, keeping Sora locked in place under the weight of his quasi-luminous gaze. “She told me that I should forget about you, seeing as you clearly cared more about your new friends than about me, then offered me the power I needed to find Kairi as well.

“You’d been looking up to me ever since we were kids; we’d spent every single day together, even if we had to sneak out through our bedroom windows to do so, but suddenly, that wasn’t the case anymore. It felt so weird not to be at the center of your attention; or to think that your brand new weapon could make you better than me. So much so, that I was dumb enough to believe in Maleficent.”

There’s a few minutes of silence, then, as Riku gathers up the rest of his thoughts. Sora keeps his mouth obediently shut for the entirety of it, using this time to start preparing his counter-arguments for when Riku is done.

“I realized how badly I’d screwed up after being possessed by Ansem,” Riku sighs, staring down at his knees. “Even all the power in the _universe_ wouldn’t have been worth it if it meant hurting Kairi. I’d _wanted_ to hurt you, back then -- I was so blinded by my own hurt and jealousy that it felt like the only way to make myself feel better was to have you suffer just as much as I did -- but there’s no way I could’ve let Ansem hurt Kairi while using my body.

“He banished me to the Realm of Darkness as punishment for doing that, somehow -- which led me into meeting Mickey, and then helping you and the others close the Door to Darkness. I had a lot of time to think about everything I had done while climbing up the floors of Castle Oblivion; I was completely alone for most of it, so there wasn’t much else I could do. But when I met Naminé and found you sleeping in that pod, I promised myself that I’d help you wake up, no matter the cost; it was the least I could do, after all the stupid stuff I did; after hurting you in so many ways.”

Sora knows the rest of that particular part of the story well enough from what Roxas, Xion and Naminé have told him, as well as the off-handed remarks that Riku himself would sometimes make. He knows that Riku spent most of the time Sora was asleep in the pod figuring out how to truly live with the darkness that still lingered -- that still lingers, even now -- inside his heart; to finding the careful balance between light and dark.

“I know better than to let that same jealousy overtake me by now,” Riku continues, settling a hand over his own chest, “but it’s still here, somewhere inside my heart. I don’t think it’ll ever completely go away, but I can choose not to act on it -- which I _have_ ,” he says, sounding like he’s trying to convince Sora of something. “It flares up sometimes, but I would never let it drive me again.”

“I believe you,” Sora tells him with the barest hint of a smile, feeling like Riku could use the reassurance.

“We’re not the same people we were before all of this happened, for better or for worse,” Riku frowns. “You’ve made friends with so many people; I don’t mean to imply that you need to do anything about my jealousy, because it doesn’t really bother me anymore. I don’t want you to stop spending time with your friends because of me.”

“I know,” Sora nods, biting back the urge to remark that they’re _Riku’s_ friends, too. “Our circles of friends overlap a lot, but they're not the exact same anymore like they'd been on the Islands, and that’s okay.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Riku mutters, seemingly mollified for the time being.

Sora continues to wait patiently in the silence that follows, well aware that there’s still more to it.

“This whole thing with our hearts, with having to stay within a certain distance of each other… it felt like I was keeping you from spending time with your other friends,” Riku confesses in a small voice, staring fixedly at the floor yet again. “That’s why I kept agreeing with whatever you wanted to do -- if you wanted to hang out with them, there’s no way I’d keep you from that.”

Something about this part of Riku’s speech rubs Sora in all of the wrong ways, but he won’t let himself interrupt, even if he ends up biting his lips until they _bleed_ in an effort to keep the words that jump to the tip of his tongue from escaping.

“It felt like we had gone back to how close we were as kids,” Riku sighs. “Though even _that_ wouldn’t be a perfect comparison, given that we slept in different houses back then,” he chuckles. The half-smirk that graces his face then has an edge of self-deprecation that Sora does _not_ like. “It felt so nice to regain that same closeness we used to have, but at the same time, it felt like I was completely monopolizing your attention in a way that I had resolved to never do again.

“You had to take me into consideration when deciding _anything_ \-- where we could go, what we could do, how long we could stay out -- and it was all my fault,” Riku huffs, very nearly spitting the words out, and there it is: the self-blame that Sora had been dreading to hear this whole time.

He forces himself to let go of his lower lip when he notices the unmistakable taste of blood, running his tongue over the wound and using the resulting sting as a way to keep himself grounded.

“I started to dread the day that Ienzo would tell us that we didn’t _have_ to stay close to each other anymore, because I didn’t want things to go back to the way they’d been before all of this happened, which only made me feel like even more of a burden,” he smiles ruefully. “So when he finally said we could stay _worlds_ apart if we wanted with absolutely no consequences, I just… panicked,” he chuckles mirthlessly, turning his head away in shame.

“Riku…”

“I kept waiting for you to do it; to go somewhere without me, but you insisted on sticking close. I was so _relieved_ every time I woke up and you were still there instead of having gone to visit Twilight Town or Radiant Garden on your own; or when you noticed I was walking away and you ran to my side even though you didn’t _have_ to anymore, and it made me feel so goddamn _guilty_. It was way too similar to that same old jealousy, and I hated it -- I _hate_ it -- _so_ much.

“I don’t want us to go through all of that again; I’d at least _like_ to think that I know better than to demand you give me more of your time and attention than you do to the others, even if part of me still _wants_ it. So I guess… I started to pull back so that it wouldn’t hurt as much when we stopped spending every single hour of every single day together. Having you follow me every time I tried to pull away just made me feel _worse_ \-- it felt like you kept doing it just because you got used to it, or maybe because you still felt like you had to do it, even though that’s not the case anymore.

“So… that’s all of it, I think,” Riku huffs out a small laugh. “That’s why I’ve been acting so weird this whole time, and even more so tonight, seeing as we’ve finally finished healing our hearts. You were having fun with everyone at the party, so I decided it wouldn’t make much of a difference if I retired early for the evening. I know I should never have let it get this bad, but… I couldn’t really help it. Still, I’m truly sorry for how worried I made you and Kairi, for all that’s worth.”

Riku faces Sora head on for the first time in hours as he says that, letting go of both of his legs as he straightens his posture until he looks like _himself_ again, having at last set down the boulders he’d been carrying around on his shoulders for so long.

There are a thousand and one corrections, reprimands and lectures making a ruckus inside Sora’s head, clamoring desperately for the privilege of being the first to be given a voice, but they’re drowned out by the blaring sirens that his brain activates all of a sudden.

 _This is it,_ the sirens say, taking Sora by the shoulders to shake him until he understands. _This is the moment you’ve been waiting for!_

“I love you,” Sora says.

Embarrassingly -- but also unsurprisingly -- it takes him a few seconds to realize that _he’d_ been the one to say those three little words, instead of something like a third unknown entity that had decided to take up residence in their bedroom.

Once he _does_ realize it, however, his body’s reaction is immediate: he feels his face heat up until it’s at approximately the same temperature as the _sun_ ; his heart starts beating so fast that the sound of his own blood rushing through his ears drowns out absolutely everything else; his stomach simply gives up on him -- he’ll forever wonder how the hell he managed to not puke right then and there, honestly.

Riku blinks rapidly in response, visibly taken aback. “Uh,” he attempts to say something, frowning in a way that would have been _adorable_ if Sora wasn’t currently four seconds away from dying. “I love you too?” Riku manages eventually, his confusion making it sound like a question.

 _He hasn’t realized I meant it romantically,_ Sora thinks incredulously to himself, feeling a mixture of sadness and exasperation run through his veins at the thought.

“No,” Sora shakes his head -- he’s already said it, might as well go all the way. “I _love_ you, Riku -- I’m _in love_ with you.”

Riku goes completely still after hearing Sora’s clarification; Sora glances down at his chest only to notice that his best friend is not even breathing.

“...What?” Riku chokes out at last, sounding so utterly disbelieving that Sora kind of feels like he’s been punched right in the solar plexus.

“I’m in love with you,” Sora repeats, already resolved to say it however many times Riku needs him to.

“I-- Sora, wha--”

Riku cuts himself off when Sora scoots closer, then inhales sharply as Sora reaches out with both hands so as to cup his face in a strikingly tender way. When Sora leans in to place the tiniest of kisses just a few centimeters away from his mouth -- because Sora needs to prove his feelings _somehow_ , but he can’t just kiss Riku on the lips without his permission even though Sora’s pretty darn sure Riku loves him back by now -- which makes Riku go still as a statue.

They’re both blushing fiercely by the time Sora pulls back, but Sora makes sure to give him a bashful smile as he does so, giving in to the urge to smooth his thumbs over Riku’s cheekbones as Riku stares at him as if Sora is the most wondrous thing in the universe.

Or maybe as if Sora had just managed to kill off all of his brain cells. Sora can’t really tell, to be honest.

Riku’s hand bumps his when he raises it to touch the area in which Sora’s lips had made contact with his skin, but it looks like Riku doesn’t even notice it; he simply keeps on rubbing the area with an expression of utter disbelief.

“I love you,” Sora tells him again, just in case he’s forgotten it in the eight seconds since Sora said it last.

“You…” Riku whispers in a completely wretched voice, still frowning like he can’t quite believe it. “You really mean it?” he asks, so quietly hopeful that Sora feels his heart break in two.

“Of course I mean it,” he frowns sadly, moving his hands further towards the back of Riku’s head so he can sink his fingers into Riku’s silver hair. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know,” Riku exhales, leaning into Sora’s touch like a starved plant tilts towards the sun.

“Riku…” Sora sighs, gently scratching Riku’s scalp with his blunt nails. “How many times am I gonna have to tell you that I _like_ spending time with you because you are my _best friend_ before you start believing me?”

Riku shrugs noncommittally, looking resolutely away from Sora. “I’m sorry.”

“I _did_ wonder why you kept looking at me like you were expecting me not to follow you around anymore,” Sora admits with pursed lips. “I didn’t _want_ to move away and you _told me_ you still wanted me to stick close, so it didn’t make any sense.”

“I was scared that you were staying near just because I wanted you to, not because _you_ actually wanted to do it,” Riku confesses.

Sora tugs on a lock of his best friend’s hair until he gets a slight wince for it. “You absolute doofus,” he huffs exasperatedly, rubbing the spot he’d pulled on as a quiet apology. “I love being around you -- I loved it even before I realized that I had a crush on you. I _like_ doing everything together; I love knowing that you’re always within easy reach whenever I have a thought I _need_ to share, or even a silly picture to show, or maybe when I just need to reassure myself that you’re _here_ and that you’re _safe_.

“I like being the one that you always turn to; I like how we just talk without words sometimes because we know each other so well already; I _love_ hearing you laugh and seeing you smile, especially when I’m the one who got you to do that; I love it when you get all cocky and confident when you _know_ you’re good at something -- I don’t know if I should be telling you this, but I love the little self-assured smirk you get whenever you’re showing off.”

Riku blushes up to the roots of his hair. “Sora--”

“Wow, that got real rambly _real_ fast,” Sora mumbles to himself, forcibly pulling his train of thought back onto its intended tracks. He has a _point_ to make here, goddamn it, and he’s not going to let Riku’s good looks distract him from it! “But anyway! You’re not ‘keeping me’ from spending time with the others, or anything like that -- even if this thing with our hearts hadn’t happened, I’d _still choose_ to spend as much time as I possibly can with you, because you’re my best friend and I love you.”

“But--”

“No buts!” Sora exclaims, pulling on Riku’s ear for effect. “You shouldn’t beat yourself up for feeling jealous, Riku. Like you said, you know better than to let it take the reins, right?”

“Yeah,” Riku exhales.

“Then what’s the problem?” Sora frowns, refusing to let Riku look away from him. “It’s completely natural to feel it -- if you know to not act on it, then why do you fight it so much? Doesn’t that just make it worse?”

“It does,” Riku whispers, closing his eyes with a wince. Sora clicks his tongue in sympathy, giving his best friend’s scalp a few more scratches to hopefully make it better. “Have you ever…” he trails off with a small blush. Sora has a pretty good guess as to what he meant to say, and it makes him blush as well.

“I tried so hard to stay close to you in our dancing lessons for a reason,” he says, biting his lip. “And it wasn’t just because I was used to doing that -- I wanted you to dance with _me_ , not with the others.”

Riku’s blush goes from a barely-there pink to a vivid red. “Ah.”

“Yeah,” Sora smiles shyly, but then he remembers something else he’d wanted to say. “Oh, and don’t even get me started on how _wrong_ you are to think I’d let you pull away from me!” he puffs out his cheeks, startling Riku. “You’re a total sandhead if you think we’ll go back to barely spending any time together now that our healing is done, Riku! I didn’t spend _months_ looking for you to just sit by as you push me away now that we finally have the chance to be together, nuh-uh!”

“Sora…”

“You could never be a burden to me, Riku, _ever_ ,” he says, letting his hands drift down to Riku’s shoulders. “Spending time with you is a _gift_ , never a chore; even if we kind of want to kill each other sometimes,” he grins playfully, rejoicing at how Riku’s lips quirk up upon hearing this. “You’re _special_ to me,” he stresses, giving his best friend a good shake to guarantee that the message is received.

Riku gives Sora a small smile in response to his words, but Sora still feels like he needs convincing, so he barrels on.

“No one could ever replace you, not in a million years,” he whispers. “My life might as well have a Riku-shaped space in it, with how important you are to me -- no one else would ever fit in it, no matter how much they tried. All the friends I’ve made are very special to me too, but… none of them are _you_ , Riku. We’ve gone through so many things together; how could anyone else ever compare?”

“I… I don’t know what to say,” Riku admits, sounding a little overwhelmed.

“That’s okay, you don’t really have to say anything,” Sora smiles, cupping Riku’s face again. “I just felt like you had to hear it. I’d been kind of hoping to confess at a better time, but… I guess this is as good a time as any, right?” he grins shakily, feeling the insects that live inside his ribcage start acting up again now that he’s brought their conversation back to this topic.

“You’d already been planning to conf-- to say it?” Riku frowns, tilting his head down so as to have his bangs cover most of his face.

“Of course,” Sora huffs. “I knew I’d tell you about it at the very moment I realized it in the first place,” he shrugs slightly. “Everything that’s happened in the past two years couldn’t make us stop being best friends, so I figured that our friendship could totally survive a confession, even if it turns out that you don’t feel the same,” Sora continues, his voice and convictions growing smaller with every millimeter of distance that Riku puts between them.

“Right,” Riku says, his voice barely above a murmur. He completely ignores Sora’s attempts to meet his eyes, too, which makes Sora more worried than he’s willing to admit.

“Riku…” he sighs with a helpless frown, unable to understand what’s happening. “Riku, what’s wrong? Why are you pulling away?”

“I’m fine,” Riku tells him.

“No, you’re not,” Sora scoffs, lowering his voice into a distressed mumble shortly thereafter. “C’mon, Riku-- I thought we’d finally reached some sort of understanding; is there something else you’re not telling me? Is it because I confessed? Riku, I’m so sor--”

“Don’t apologize,” Riku cuts him off, startling even himself with how harshly it comes out. “You did nothing wrong -- this is all on me.”

“Don’t shut me out all over again, Riku,” Sora pleads, unable to care about the undercurrent of pure desperation in his own voice. “Please, _let me help._ ”

“I don’t know _how_ ,” Riku whimpers brokenly, sounding as desolate as Sora feels.

Sora thinks back to how disbelieving Riku had been after hearing his confession, and it gives him a clue of what’s happening.

“Why do you find it so hard to believe that I love you? That’s what this is about, isn’t it?” he asks with narrowed eyes. “Riku, how could I _not_ love you?” he huffs out a tiny little laugh, smiling despite himself. “You’re strong, smart, patient, determined, devoted -- and so many other things. You’ve worked so hard to atone for the things you did in your moment of weakness; I am _genuinely proud_ how far you’ve come since then, and I can’t _wait_ to see where you go from here.

“You’ve helped me in so many ways: you’ve protected me; you’ve saved me from myself _and_ from our enemies; you gave me reassurances when I needed them most. I’d trust you with my life a thousand times over, and it’s such an honor to know that you’d do the same in return. Whenever we’re out there together, I _know_ I have nothing to fear, because there’s nothing that can stand in our way when we have each other.

“We’ve had our ups and downs, of course, and I’m willing to bet we’ll still be having them even when we’re all old and wrinkled, but that’s just how we are,” Sora smiles softly, rubbing a thumb over the edge of Riku’s jaw. “Our lives are so completely intertwined that it’s really a wonder it took me so long to realize how deeply I love you -- but then again, this is me we’re talking about here, so it was probably to be expected,” he chuckles. 

“Thinking back now, I realize that this feeling had been lingering in the back of my head for way longer than I first thought, which doesn’t really surprise me. I just… I love you _so much_ that I get overwhelmed if I think too much about it, and I can’t understand why you’d find that so hard to believe,” he furrows his brows, looking up at Riku with a forlorn expression. “So please…. help me understand. Tell me what I can do to make you believe me, Riku.”

His best friend looks absolutely exhausted by the time Sora finishes his piece. He’d insisted on facing the wall for very nearly all of it, but Sora was still able to see how he clenched his fists and worried his lower lip throughout the whole thing; Sora bets that he’s done the latter enough to break the skin, just like Sora himself had a little earlier.

“I told you, Sora,’ Riku says, utterly defeated. “I don’t know how.”

“Then we can figure it out together,” Sora fires back immediately, ever the optimist. “Just don’t shut me out again, please.”

Riku spends a good few minutes staring down at his hands, studying them like they’re the most interesting thing in the universe. Sora would personally rank them pretty high if he ever settled down to make a list, but he doubts that Riku would do the same; he knows Riku is doing it in order to give himself the time and space to _think_ , but he still clings to this amusing idea in a desperate attempt to keep himself afloat in what’s turned out to be such an emotional night.

“I think…” Riku starts, so quietly that Sora has to lean over to really hear what he’s saying, “that I somehow managed to convince myself that you would never feel that way about me.”

The picture that these words paint is so heartbreaking that Sora can’t even find it within himself to be happy for the fact that Riku has basically admitted to returning his feelings -- though he still wants Riku to confirm them outright before he jumps the gun on that thought.

“Why would you do that?”

“Some sort of desperate attempt at self-preservation, maybe,” Riku shrugs, watching Sora through the short curtain of his own hair. “If I squashed any hopes of you ever having those feelings for me, then perhaps I could save myself from the disappointment of being proven right.”

“Just say what you mean, Riku,” Sora gently encourages him, reaching out to take one of Riku’s hands into his own.

His best friend still hesitates to take the plunge for a good minute or so, studying their joined hands as if he can’t quite believe his eyes.

“I’m in love with you too,” he confesses at last, his voice as even as Sora’s had been; his breathing speeds up once the words are out there, but he continues to refuse to meet Sora’s eyes. “I love you so much that it scares me sometimes,” he adds in a whisper, tightening his grip on Sora’s hand.

“It scares me too,” Sora admits with a sigh.

There are times in which he can’t help but wonder what kinds of terrible deeds he could be convinced to carry out, if Riku’s life was on the balance and there was truly no other option; the conclusions that await him at the bottom of that particular rabbit hole are never, _ever_ pleasant.

“These feelings are such a fundamental part of who I am,” Riku frowns, lifting his unoccupied hand until he can place it right above his heart. “I’ve loved you for so long at this point that I can’t imagine a world in which I don’t have them”

“I know,” Sora says, mimicking Riku’s action. He wonders how it would feel like, if he could somehow reach in and touch these feelings -- would they be warm, or cold? Soft and fuzzy like a firefly’s single spot of light, or solid and shiny, like a precious gem? “We’ve never really had the chance to discover what we’d be like without each other -- and, honestly, I hope we never do.”

“Yeah.”

The two of them sit there in a companionable silence for an unknown period of time, quietly musing on the hopelessly entangled feelings they have for one another.

“Do you believe me now?” Sora asks eventually, lifting his head and feeling a rush of _something_ run down his spine when Riku finally meets his gaze.

“I’m trying to,” he replies, squeezing Sora’s hand as his lips curl into a self-deprecating smile. “I’ve done too good a job of convincing myself this would never happen -- now I can’t find a way to undo it.”

“We’ll find it together,” Sora nods determinedly. “It probably took you a long time to do it, so it makes sense that it’ll take a long time to _un_ do it as well.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Riku huffs out a small laugh.

The sound gives Sora the courage necessary to shift his grip on Riku’s hand, intertwining them until their fingers fit together like puzzle pieces. The action earns him a small smile and the most adorable blush ever -- Sora doesn’t even try to fight the resulting urge to lean forward and press a kiss to Riku’s cheek, relishing in how this makes the color in Riku’s cheeks darken from pink to red.

“I love you,” he says as he draws back. His chest feels like it’s one inhale away from bursting, but Sora can’t find it in himself to truly care; the love that spills forth from his heart could never be contained by mere flesh and bone; not anymore.

“Sora,” Riku laughs bashfully, rubbing the spot he had kissed as if he could still feel Sora’s lips on his skin.

“Can I kiss you?” Sora blurts out before he can give the request a little more thought, though he can’t say he’s surprised -- his track record of thinking before he speaks has never been all that great. His heart pounds like a war drum in the aftermath of the question, but he forces himself to own up to it, straightening his back and squaring his shoulders determinedly.

Riku freezes upon hearing the request, predictably enough. His entire face is as red as a tomato, but Sora’s probably isn’t that much better, so Sora bites back the teasing remark that jumps to the tip of his tongue -- stones and glass houses, after all.

“...Yeah.”

That completely innocent word sets off _all_ of the alarms in Sora’s brain, because he’s never actually thought this through; his little daydreams always conveniently skipped right over this part in a hurry to get to the one in which they were already happily making out or something in that vein, and _oh god oh god oh god Sora’s gonna have to actually kiss him **oh god--**_

Somewhere along the way, his body simply decides to disconnect from his brain entirely; the next thing he knows, he’s leaning in and closing his eyes as he cups Riku’s face with his free hand to guarantee that he’ll make it to his intended target, and then--

It’s nothing like he had imagined -- in fact, it’s about a bajillion times _better_ than anything he could have ever come up with. Time ceases to have meaning when Riku pulls him closer with a hand on the crook of his neck, slotting their lips together more firmly in a way that makes Sora hum in delight.

Sora doesn’t even notice letting go of Riku’s hand, only realizing it’s happened when he sinks both hands into Riku’s hair as Riku peppers a dozen of little kisses onto his mouth. The small wounds on his lower lip protest when Riku sucks it into his own mouth, but Sora barely even feels it; too high on the experience of finally kissing Riku to take note of something as insignificant as _pain_.

He finds himself flat on the bed with Riku hovering over him when he resurfaces from their shared trance; Sora has absolutely no idea when they moved into this position, but he finds that he doesn’t really mind it -- especially since it allows him to just pull Riku closer whenever he wants more kisses, which is often.

“Hey there,” Sora greets him with a smile an unknown amount of time later, absentmindedly combing through Riku’s hair with his fingers and nuzzling the hand that cups his jaw like a particularly pleased cat.

Riku laughs at how punch-drunk Sora sounds; he’s still looking at Sora like he can’t bring himself to fully believe everything that’s happened in the past few minutes, so Sora lifts his head to steal yet another kiss -- though, is it really stealing if Riku kisses him back?

“Hey,” Riku replies with an incredulous little smile when Sora pulls back, leaning down to rub their noses together in a way that has Sora’s heart basically melting right out of his body.

“I really, really, really love you,” Sora tells him very seriously, framing Riku’s face with both hands to make sure Riku can’t look away.

Riku responds to it by drawing Sora into a kiss that leaves him gasping for breath; Sora may have accidentally awakened a monster -- but again, he doesn’t really mind it.

“I love you too,” Riku whispers into the crook of Sora’s neck, shifting the two of them around until he can lace his arms around Sora’s waist and place his head atop Sora’s chest, with Sora automatically embracing his shoulders in return.

“Do you think we could fall asleep like this?” Sora muses out loud, drawing nonsensical patterns onto Riku’s shoulder blades.

“You’ve taken naps on fire-hot sand under direct sunlight before,” Riku snorts, lifting his head to show Sora his playful grin. “Somehow, I don’t think this position would be a problem.”

Sora puffs out his cheeks at him, prompting another ugly snort. He smiles when Riku lays his head over Sora’s heart again, using this opportunity to finally indulge in his wish to study Riku’s muscles with more than just his eyes.

“We really should go to sleep soon, though,” Riku sighs softly. “Our parents will get worried if we’re late, not to mention the fact that Kairi may decide to wake us up with a Waterga again.”

Sora hums in response; loathe as he is to admit it, Riku has a point -- tomorrow is bound to be yet another big day, so they’ll need all the rest they can get.

“We should’ve never let her learn how to use magic,” he grumbles, remembering the instance Riku had mentioned.

“It’s too late for that now, alas.”

“Mm, yeah. Turn off the lights?”

“‘kay.”

Sora readies the bed while Riku turns off both of their bedside lamps, fluffling up the pillows and kicking their blanket into submission. Sora’s gotten used to curling up against Riku’s side as he drifts off, but tonight he wordlessly accepts to trade places with Riku, feeling like his best friend -- and maybe boyfriend? -- could use the reassurance of being the cuddle _e_ instead of the cuddle _r_ this time around.

He’s nowhere near naïve enough to think that it’ll be all smooth sailing from here on out -- if growing up with Riku has taught him anything, it’s that insecurities are an absolute _hell_ to manage -- but as long as they continue to be able to find these little moments of peace to simply exist together and enjoy each other’s company, Sora fully believes they’ll make it out alright.

They have the entire rest of their lives to figure things out; to discover what works and what doesn’t -- within their relationship as well as regarding everything else.

Sora can barely wait for this new chapter of their life together to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is: the last chapter before the epilogue. Like I said in the starting notes, this was an _absolute_ rollercoaster to write; I have never written so much in such a small amount of time in my LIFE, and I've already told my friends to kill me on the spot if I ever get it inside my head to do something like this EVER again, but.... it's done.  
> Like I said in I think the previous chapter's notes, this won't be quick, nor painless. Sora is right; they're going to have a lot of ups and downs as they figure things out, but they'll do it together.  
> My beta teased me by telling me that she thought this would get to 20k and god, I hate her for having been so close to being right. I wrote and they just _kept talking_ , and while I know said talking was super necessary and all, I was still like BOYS I GOTTA FINISH THIS CHAPTER BY WEDNESDAY CAN WE MOVE ALONG PLEASE???  
> All of their previous talks never truly cut to the heart of the matter; some of them went a little deeper than the rest, sure, but this is the first time they've actually talked to this extent, probably ever. smh, such stupid boys! They'll get better from here on out though, I have faith in them.  
> I have a lot of Thots as to why Riku would never have confessed to Sora without Sora doing it first, but I'm a little pressed for time so I don't think I'll be able to share. If you wanna hear them though, you can either drop me a comment or a message on tumblr, and I'll be more than happy to say them! I promise I don't bite, lol.  
> My beta also spent the entire time I was writing this chapter telling me to kill y'all. I told her: first I kill myself writing this, then I kill you since you'll have to edit it, and then we'll kill everyone else. At the last part of this chapter, I felt like a pig being led by a carrot on a stick from minecraft, with the "carrot" standing in for "disgusting amount of fluff and mushy feelings that will kill me instantly when I read through it to edit this chapter". Don't worry, I already got someone to take care of my funeral — I am a hundred percent mcfucking dead.  
> This has been a long ride, from the measly little 1,6k prologue to this 18,2k behemoth, but we're almost there! All that's left is the epilogue, and then we'll be all set ❤️


	26. Epilogue

Riku is roused from the depths of sleep by the feel of a familiar weight settling on top of him. If it had been anyone other than Sora, Riku would have jumped to his feet, ready to fight either a heartless or the person who wished to prank him, but his boyfriend has done this so many times by now that his instincts have grown used to it.

“Hey there, sleepyhead,” Sora greets, grinning so hard that Riku can _hear_ it in his voice.

“This is a perfectly appropriate time to wake up at,” Riku argues, squinting against the faint sunlight spilling through his window and clearing his throat before he continues. “You woke up at an ungodly hour because that’s what you do when you’re excited for something.”

“So what? Doesn’t change the fact that I’m up and ready before you!”

“A feat that only happens once every blue moon,” Riku smirks. “So I guess I shouldn’t blame you for wanting to gloat about it.”

“Exactly!”

“Doesn’t mean I _won’t_ , though,” Riku completes with a self-satisfied expression, switching their positions in bed so he’s the one on top instead.

“Riku, no, you’re crushing me!” Sora protests with a twinkling laugh, squirming restlessly in an attempt to escape.

“That’s too bad,” Riku exhales, making himself as much of a dead weight as possible.

“Riiiiikuuuu!”

A handful of well-placed jabs and pokes allows Sora to push Riku off to the side -- the side of the window, thankfully, because if Sora had pushed him off of the bed, Riku would have made sure to drag his boyfriend down with him.

“Meanie,” Sora pouts, crossing his arms. Riku grins unapologetically in response, arranging himself into a more comfortable position.

There’s still an unknown amount of time until his morning alarm goes off, so Riku doesn’t feel guilty for closing his eyes to get a bit more rest. He doubts Sora will stay quiet long enough for him to drift off for a few more minutes, but seeing as they have a big day ahead of them, every extra second counts.

He smiles without opening his eyes when he feels Sora scoot closer to him, already predicting what will happen next; the lips pressed to his come as no surprise after a little under two years of Sora stealing a kiss at every opportunity, but Riku still hums happily into it, feeling Sora’s mouth stretch into a grin as well.

“Hey,” Sora says once he pulls back, grabbing one of Riku’s hands and intertwining their fingers.

“Hello,” Riku replies as his heart expands to about three times its usual size.

“I can’t believe we’re finally gonna set out on the adventure we planned so many years ago,” Sora breathes out with a note of amazement in his voice, reaching out to brush Riku’s hair away from his face.

“Yeah,” Riku smiles again, pulling on their joined hands until he can press a kiss to the back of Sora’s hand. “It’s been a long time coming.”

It is indeed hard to believe that four years have passed since that fateful night on the Islands; four years since they discovered the existence of worlds apart from their own tiny little home; four years since they set off a chain of events whose consequences neither of them could have ever imagined.

“Do you think Kairi is already awake too?” Sora asks with a faraway expression, playing absentmindedly with Riku’s fingers.

“She’s as excited about this as you are, so I bet she is,” Riku snorts, giving his best friend’s hand a reassuring squeeze.

“What about you?” Sora asks next, pinning Riku under the force of his sky blue gaze. “Are _you_ excited for our adventure?”

“Of course I am,” he huffs out a chuckle, feeling his insides go all soft and mushy at how Sora continues to check on him whenever possible. “Just because my body has the good sense to rest properly in preparation for our big day, doesn’t mean I’m not excited to know what’s out there waiting for us,” he continues in a teasing tone, laughing at Sora’s puffed out cheeks. “I bet you’re gonna crash as soon as we leave the Mysterious Tower, and then I’m going to have to do all the flying until you wake up!”

“Will not!”

“You so will!”

Riku laughs into the kiss Sora initiates then, well aware that it’s a ploy to either shut him up or distract him. He’s not ashamed to admit that it usually _works_ ; it serves as a reminder that Sora _loves him back_ and wants to _be_ with him in a romantic sense, which still manages to take him by surprise sometimes, even after nearly two years of their budding relationship.

He doesn’t think the shock will ever truly wear off, but that thought doesn’t bother him; the repeated realization always injects a shot of unbridled _joy_ into his system -- a powerful burst of sunlight that frightens all of the doubts and fears lurking in the depths of his head back into their hidings spots, where they’re mostly harmless.

He breaks off their kiss to chuckle when Sora guides him into laying on top of him again, biting back a playful remark about how Sora had protested this same position not even five minutes ago.

“You really like staying like this, don’t you?” he asks instead, smirking as Sora presses a handful of kisses to the arch of his cheekbones.

“It makes me feel safe,” Sora replies, clinging to him like a particularly obstinate octopus.

“ _God_ , you’re such a sap,” Riku huffs, unable to stop himself from sounding disgustingly fond. Sora grins against his skin, then nuzzles his cheek.

“ _Your_ sap.”

“Stop, my heart will _literally_ explode,” Riku laughs, batting his face away.

Sora only grins harder at that, reaching up to hold Riku’s head in place as he presses dozens of kisses on every inch of his boyfriend’s face.

“Love you, love you, love you,” he mumbles with each kiss, resisting Riku’s attempts to pull away with the ease of practice.

“Sora, c’mon!” Riku protests amidst his chuckles, scrunching his nose at the feel of wet lips on his eyelids. “ _Ew_ , Sora!”

“Make me,” Sora challenges in his next breath, going back to his sappy chant right afterwards.

That’s easy enough to do; Riku tilts his head so as to have Sora’s next kiss land on the corner of his mouth and uses the split second before Sora barrels on to capture his boyfriend’s lips in a _proper_ kiss. Sora makes a noise of appreciation when Riku licks into his mouth, moving his hands from the sides of Riku’s face to his shoulders instead.

“Love you too, dork,” Riku mutters onto Sora’s lips when he pulls back, moving downwards to press a line of kisses to the space just below his boyfriend’s jaw.

“Mm, Riku…” Sora sighs happily when Riku sucks on a spot close to his earlobe -- not nearly hard enough to leave a mark, but enough to make a point -- wiggling restlessly under Riku’s steady weight.

He can’t say he’s surprised when Sora sneaks a hand under his loose t-shirt, splaying it on Riku’s lower back like a brand, but he still snickers when it happens, lifting himself onto his elbows to grin at the dazed look Sora gives him.

“Kairi would actually murder us _and_ destroy our bodies if we were late because of _that_ , Sora,” he chuckles, unable to stop a shudder from running down his spine when Sora smoothes a chilly hand over his side.

“I know,” Sora replies with just the tiniest hint of a pout. “I just wanna savor this moment, because it’ll probably be a while before we get another one like this -- what with all three of us living in a gummi ship and all.”

“Yeah.”

“God, can you imagine what travelling with Roxas would be like, though? He would never stop teasing us,” Sora groans. “Kairi will at least let us sneak in a kiss or some cuddling if we behave ourselves.”

“I’d find a way to dispose of Roxas in the first world we visited,” Riku deadpans, smiling at the ugly snort that Sora lets out in response.

“He’d try to dispose of you before that, though,” his best friend argues.

“Exactly -- he would _try_. I would succeed,” Riku declares arrogantly, feeling his lips curl into a mischievous smirk. “I’ve done it before, after all.”

“Riku!” Sora gasps in astonishment, sounding somewhat chastisting as well; still, he can’t fully contain the resulting snickers, though he does attempt to offset them by slapping Riku’s arm in reprimand. “That’s so mean!”

“Well? It’s the truth,” Riku shrugs unapologetically.

“Man, I can’t blame Aqua for worrying that the two of you will _actually_ kill each other one day,” Sora huffs, shaking his head in amusement. “Mutual death threats and nonstop competition weren’t what I had in mind when I wanted you guys to be friends.”

“ _Friends_? We’re mortal enemies,” Riku says matter-of-factly, nipping at the base of Sora’s throat just to make him squirm.

“Alright, _Vanitas_ ,” Sora pats his shoulder condescendingly, drawing a snort out of Riku. “If Vanitas and Ven can be considered friends, so can you and Roxas.”

“I object to that.”

Sora grins. “That’s too bad; please fill out a complaint form and then wait up to fiftee-- mhm!” he protests as Riku cuts him off with a deep kiss, clinging for dear life as Riku does a thorough job of exploring every inch of his mouth and emptying his brain in the process.

It takes Sora a few dazed blinks to restore his brain cells -- something that is _very_ amusing to watch -- but he frowns once he does, pouting pitifully at his boyfriend.

“You can’t just _do_ that, Riku!”

“That’s too bad,” Riku parrots back at him, laughing at the drawn-out whine he gets in response.

Sora is just about to drag him down once again when Riku’s alarm goes off, making both of them stop on their tracks -- Sora with a displeased huff, Riku with a short laugh.

“Time to get up, then,” he says, extricating himself from Sora’s octopus hold after pressing a quick parting kiss to his lips.

There’s a knock on the door right when Riku is about to stand from the bed, quickly followed by the sound of Hoshi’s voice.

“Are you decent, boys?” she asks teasingly, making no motion to open the door.

Sora flushes as he scrambles into a sitting position; while they’re both _very_ thankful for the fact that their parents _always_ knock before poking their heads in to check on them, this particular exchange never gets any less awkward -- even when they’ve been doing nothing untoward.

“Yeah, Mom,” Riku replies, pitching his voice a little louder to make sure she’ll hear it.

Hoshi laughs at the dash of pink in Sora’s cheeks when she opens the door, propping herself up against the doorway with an indulgent smile. “Kairi asked me to keep the two of you from getting sidetracked,” she explains, lifting the gummi phone that Chip and Dale had made for her a few months earlier in preparation for what’s happening today.

Aiko and Kairi’s mom got their own gummi phones as well -- a way for them to keep in touch with their adventurous children, no matter the distance that physically separates them from now on. The trio will never be able to fully keep their parents from worrying over them, but this should at least assuage _some_ of their fears, so it was definitely a nice gesture.

“Well, you can tell her that I’m up and starting to get ready,” Riku chuckles. “Sora, did you finish packing your bags?”

“I did, okay!?” Sora huffs, seemingly offended that Riku felt the need to even ask. “I left them downstairs.”

“Sora, why don’t you come down to help me with breakfast?” Hoshi smiles, stepping aside to let Riku grab the towel hanging on the back of the door.

“Sure thing, Mama Hoshi,” Sora grins easily, standing on his tiptoes to press a kiss to Riku’s cheek when he passes by him. “Don’t take too long!” Sora tells him in a playful tone.

“When have I ever?” Riku snorts, waving his best friend away as he makes his way to the bathroom.

A quiet sort of giddiness starts to bubble up inside Riku’s stomach as he turns the shower’s faucet, closing his eyes to better withstand the resulting spray of cold water. The feeling expands and expands inside his chest, slowly filling up his entire body with a kind of restless energy that has him grinning like an absolute loon. He bets that their friends would recoil if they ever saw such an expression on his face -- loony grins were Sora’s thing, not Riku’s -- but he’s so _giddy_ that the thought only makes him chuckle.

 _We’re really gonna do it_ , he thinks incredulously, allowing the slightly chilly water to ground him in reality. _We’re really going to set out on our adventure…_

It’s been a few weeks since he, Sora, Kairi and Ventus graduated from the Disney Castle Academy. Now that Ventus has officially finished his schooling, he’s settling further into his role of helping Aqua and Terra set up their future school for keyblade wielders; Vanitas, Rikuto and Naminé still have a year to go before their own graduation, but they’ve decided to help as well -- though, unsurprisingly, their levels of enthusiasm over it vary enormously.

As for the Twilight Town gang, Xion had started to work at the bistro a few months into their second year of schooling and seems pretty happy with it, with Roxas having followed her lead not even two weeks later. Lea, on the other hand, has gotten the grand idea of opening up a fireworks shop so as to put his pyromaniac skills to good use, though said idea has yet to leave the planning stage.

Riku thinks that Lea is waiting for Roxas and Xion to graduate before he can actually put it to motion; while they wait for that, Isa has begun to pester Lea into making sure that this is a financially viable enterprise in the long run. Riku knows there’s an ongoing bet with some of the others regarding how long they think it’ll take for Isa to just take over finances entirely, but he’s decided to stay out of it this time around.

All of that doesn’t mean that the quartet has slacked off in their training, of course -- while there’s definitely a component of keeping themselves sharp in case anyone else decides to attempt to plunge the universe into darkness, a lot of it is also just for _fun_. It’s nice to share the experience of being a keyblade wielder with so many people; to be able to figure out what works and what doesn’t with the help and company of others.

They’ve certainly put the obstacle courses at the Land of Departure in good use in these past two years, at any rate. Riku believes that they’ve gone through every single course at least _once_ by now -- even that nightmarish one that Aqua and Terra had refused to talk about for the _longest_ time.

It had been a course meant for duos, which was somewhat surprising, and it lived up to _every single_ shudder and wince that the two keyblade wielders had been unable to contain while leading Sora and Riku to its entrance. The entire thing had been built underground, pretty much carved into the bedrock -- there was no way for anyone to see into the course without going through it themselves.

Aqua and Terra also refused to tell them anything about it, insisting that they were _meant_ to go in blind; even if they had explained it in detail, the course was supposed to be random and unpredictable, so they were unlikely to find the exact same parameters that Aqua and Terra had. Aqua’s last words before they started it had been about how the run would automatically deactivate if the magic perceived any serious injuries -- she hadn’t even been able to wish them luck.

Sora and Riku stumbled out some twenty minutes later, soaked with sweat and covered with soot from one too many close-range Fire spells, then promptly collapsed onto the grass to gasp for breath as every one of their muscles screamed in protest.

Riku still thinks that their pretty much seamless teamwork -- borne out of over a decade of fighting each other -- is the _only_ thing that allowed them to actually finish that course in one piece. Aqua and Terra hadn’t said anything; only passed them some bottles of water and a few potions to help them get back on their feet.

Roxas cajoled Xion into running it with him a couple of weeks later, unflinching in his determination to get better scores than Riku at _everything_ \-- a development that happened a year into their schooling and was met with cautious optimism by Sora and trepidation by _everyone else_.

It didn’t go well; five minutes after they went in, the hum of the course’s powerful magic fizzled into nothing, signaling its deactivation. Runes on the walls of the course stopped Cure magic from working and they weren’t allowed to take potions with them, so Xion had to drag an injured Roxas to the finish line by herself, with Aqua quickly casting a Curaga on him to make sure he’d be okay.

“You win this round,” Roxas had scowled up at Riku, looking absolutely disgruntled as he accepted Xion’s fussing.

They later discovered that Roxas had jumped in front of a powerful magic spell that Xion wouldn’t have been able to dodge. When Sora poked the matter a little further, Roxas confessed that he couldn’t have let Xion get hurt, seeing as _he_ had been the one to insist on running the course despite everyone’s warnings.

There were _plenty_ of other courses for Riku and Roxas to compete in, anyway; whenever the two of them went to the Land of Departure at the same time, they’d pick the most hellish-looking course and run it about a dozen times each, taunting and insulting one another the entire time until Sora got tired enough of it to drag both of them back to the castle.

Riku wouldn’t admit it out loud in a thousand years, but competing with Roxas is _fun_. He doesn’t think that they’ll ever be actual friends, not with the things that will probably linger between the two of them for the rest of time, but they make good rivals.

Their rivalry is made even funnier by how Sora had _loudly_ declared very early on that if the two of them ever tried to make him choose between them, Sora would murder them _both_. The threat has served its intended purpose -- Riku and Roxas always keep Sora out of their petty squabbles and casual death threats -- but it’s amusing to imagine what Sora’s reaction would be if they ever put him in the spotlight.

Thinking about murder and death threats reminds Riku of the Prank War -- which is still going well, thank you very much. It’s slowed down considerably, sure -- Aqua and Terra hadn’t been as present in the Academy during the second year as they’d been on the first, so Vanitas had one less mortal enemy to torment -- and is bound to do so even more now that nearly half of the remaining students have graduated, but Riku can’t see it ending anytime soon.

He snorts to himself at the mental image of some of the Prank War’s more prolific combatants keeping the pranks going even when they’re all old and gray, but deep down, he knows that it’s entirely possible for it to happen in a few decades.

They’ve all been able to overcome major differences and befriend -- or at least learn to tolerate, in some cases -- people who had previously tried to _kill them_ , but they’re outright incapable of letting go of a grudge caused by having been hit by a prank. Go figure.

As Riku walks back to his bedroom to get dressed, he can’t help but feel immensely grateful that he had finished packing his bag on the previous day. Honestly, he doesn’t even want to know what the inside of _Sora’s_ bag looks like right now; Riku’s sure that Sora probably made the outside of it all pretty and tidy in an attempt to fool both Riku _and_ his parents, but Riku isn’t going to fall for that.

The three of them have received special travel bags, with a handful of spells from the good fairies woven into the fabric. Thus, not only are the bags extra durable and fully impermeable, they also casually break the laws of physics, being able to hold _way more stuff_ than their deceptively small size would lead any of them to imagine.

Still, after having spent so many months travelling around with only what he could carry on his person, Riku’s gotten used to packing light. Aside from a few changes of clothes -- including their custom-made fancy attire, which thankfully still fits pretty much perfectly despite the couple of inches they’ve acquired in the meantime --, a handful of books to keep him (and Sora, more likely than not) entertained whenever there’s nothing for him to do, and a couple extra toiletries stashed away just in case, his bag is pretty empty.

He doubts that the same can be said for Sora’s, especially since his boyfriend hoards healing items as if he’s trying to save up to open his own moogle shop at some point in the future.

The three of them will be heading to the Tower to see if Master Yen Sid has any missions that he’d like them to fulfill before their adventure can truly begin -- Riku knows that their friends will probably be there to give them a second send-off, as well -- so Riku will talk Sora into dividing their supplies more evenly then.

He stops right in the middle of his bedroom after getting dressed, letting the tidal wave of memories that fill every single nook and cranny of this room wash over him for a moment. The last time he set out from his tiny and familiar home, he hadn’t looked back; hadn’t taken a minute to appreciate everything that it has given him, everything it has made possible; but now he knows better.

No matter how far he travels, no matter how many wonderful, crazy worlds he sees, this place right here will always be home. The overbearing sun, the ocean breeze, the constant waves -- they will always call to him; they’ll always wait for him to return.

They say that home is where the heart is, but Riku would argue that it doesn’t have to be just one place, or person; a lot of his heart will forever be Sora’s, undoubtedly, but Kairi, their parents and the Islands themselves all hold fragments of it as well.

Riku wouldn’t take them back even if he could.

He drops his bag next to Sora’s before making his way to the kitchen, pressing a kiss to his mother’s cheek upon arriving, then one to his boyfriend’s cheek, too, when Sora pouts at him. Sora’s already eaten breakfast at his own house, so he talks animatedly while Riku and Hoshi share theirs, unearthing some stories about the trips they’d taken to already-familiar worlds while on vacation from the Disney Castle Academy.

Hoshi laughs with twinkling eyes at all of the shenanigans they’ve gotten themselves into, unfazed by Sora’s mentions of the grand palaces they’ve seen and the countless royal friends they’ve acquired along the way after hearing so much about them for the past couple of years.

Sora and Riku both notice the dash of sadness hiding beneath her chuckles, but they know there’s nothing they can do to make it go away. Even all the hugs and promises to be careful in the _universe_ wouldn’t be enough to soothe the pain of seeing the children you’ve raised set out to explore unknown lands on their own, far, _far_ beyond their parents’ reach.

They _can_ , however, make the most of the time they still have together, in preparation for the weeks, if not _months_ , they’ll stay apart -- which they _do_.

The three of them walk to Sora’s house to collect Aiko and Daichi after they’ve finished eating; there’s a while to go before their official farewell yet, but Riku still takes the time to give each of them a long, tight hug, silently thanking them for all they’ve done for him.

All five of them are a little misty-eyed by the time he’s finished, but Sora and Daichi laugh it off easily enough, bantering about something Riku doesn’t truly attempt to discern as they head towards the main docks.

Riku kind of feels like apologizing to Aiko and Daichi for how Sora decided to spend his last hour on the Islands for what will probably be at least a few weeks with Riku and Hoshi instead of with them, but Aiko only laughs when he brings it up.

She pats his cheek with a genuine smile as she tells him that there’s nothing to apologize for, joking about how she and Daichi had been halfway expecting Sora to sneak out in the middle of the night to go sleep in Riku’s bed like he’s done _countless_ times ever since they went back to sleeping in separate houses. Hoshi and Daichi agree with her statement pretty much immediately, which makes both Sora and Riku blush as their parents chuckle heartily.

They meet up with Kairi and her parents at the docks, exchanging nods and amicable greetings as the five of them make their approach. Kairi shares a half excited, half panicked look with Sora and Riku when they’re close enough; all three of them laugh at each others’ quivering grins, dispelling some of the tension that lingers around their little group.

What follows is a parade of teary-eyed tight hugs and well wishes, as well as dozens of promises to stay safe and take care of one another. Riku leans heavily into Hoshi and Aiko’s gentle touches as they check all three of them over one last time, firing off questions to make sure they’ve grabbed everything they’ll need for their journey.

Riku feels somewhat bereft when their parents step back to allow them to get onto the boat they’ll be using to get to the Play Island, but he doesn’t let that stop him from squaring his shoulders in determination as they exchange their final farewells.

Once they’ve reached the midpoint between the two islands, Riku slows down on his rowing just enough to allow Sora and Kairi to wave back at their parents just one more time, with Sora waving hard enough for both Riku and himself.

After they get to the Play Island, Sora helps Riku drag their boat to a spot where it’ll hopefully be mostly untouched by the elements in their time away; Kairi covers it with tarp once they’re done, with Sora stepping forward to help her inspect the result of their handiwork.

“We’re finally gonna do it,” Kairi breathes out in wonder when they arrive at the spot where they hide the gummi ship, stopping a few paces away to stare up at it with an expression of disbelief.

“Yeah, we are,” Riku exhales as well, smiling softly as he reaches out to give her a half-hug.

“Who knows what we’ll find out there!” Sora exclaims with a wide grin, bouncing on the balls of his feet with such genuine enthusiasm that Riku and Kairi can’t hold back the fond chuckles that bubble up their throats.

“Wonderful worlds and incredible danger!” Kairi replies with a matching grin, lacing arms with both of them.

“They won’t know what hit them,” Riku snorts.

Riku and Kairi stow their bags away in the sleeping area while Sora performs a routine check on their ship, bickering about who will get which bunk as if Sora wasn’t pretty much guaranteed to unabashedly sneak onto Riku’s at the first possible opportunity.

That same anxious giddiness Riku felt earlier returns when they walk back to the cockpit to see Sora sitting in the pilot seat with an air of nervous anticipation; his best friends’ grins reflect that same feeling back at him, creating a feedback loop that has even _Riku_ restlessly bouncing his leg.

“Ready?” Sora asks them in a determined -- if slightly tremulous -- voice, his hand hovering over the controls that will get them off the ground.

“Ready,” Kairi nods firmly, fixing a grin in place when Sora and Riku look at her.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Riku replies with a smile, exchanging a nod with Sora before his boyfriend finally pushes the button.

Their promised adventure begins now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand we're here. We made it! We finished it!!!  
> To everyone who is reading this, whether you followed it while I was writing and posting it or whether you've found this months, maybe years after it's been completed, thank you so much for reading! Thank you so much for accompanying me in this journey! This fic was a perfect storm; I decided to start writing it on a whim without any idea of the ride it would be, wrote the prologue in a day and pestered my best friend to beta it in the same day so I could post it for instant validation, then a week later my brain went 'well we set up a weekly posting schedule, now we either follow it or we die' and then, well... Here we are. If the pandemic hadn't brought my life into a standstill, I would not have been able to write this _nearly_ as quickly as I did, so.... Silver lining, I guess? We gotta hold on tight to the good things, these days.  
> So, so many people have helped me get here. My best friend most of all, probably; she won't actually see this, but she's helped me in so many ways — she reassured me when I felt like I wasn't making any sense, she beat me with a stick when my bad brain got a hold on me, she encouraged me and cheered me on; she allowed me to basically comandeer her Wednesday nights so she could beta my chapters with the grace of a saint.  
> CalicoColors, AmbitiousSkyChild and managummi have all helped me tremedously as well; _thank you_ , from the bottom of my heart, for being willing to act as a rubber ducky whenever I needed to throw ideas at the wall to see what stuck, or whenever I needed to share a snippet or two because oh god I needed the instant validation. I literally could not have done it without your support.  
> To everyone who has left kudos and comments, thank you so much as well. It's been an absolute joy to have y'all around! Every reader brings a new spin into a story, brings their own experiences and ideas into the table, and it's been amazing to have you share your thoughts with me. It's been a complete honor ❤️  
> See y'all on the flip side!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm @thefiresofmustafar on tumblr!


End file.
